Latest news with #preventablediseases
BBC News
5 days ago
- Health
- BBC News
Barnsley doctor appeals to parents as vaccine uptake falls
Parents in Barnsley have been urged to have their children vaccinated against preventable diseases amid a decline in routine uptake of than 500 cases of measles have been reported in England this year, according to government data, while earlier this month a child in Liverpool became the second to die from the disease in the past five councillor Dr Alex Burnett said using inoculations to overcome disease was a "triumph of human society" and he was "filled with sadness" at the decline in told a council meeting: "In the name of those around the world who [cannot] access these safe, life-saving vaccines, please get you and your children vaccinated." Dr Burnett said: "The thought of a child dying is one that sends chills into the heart of every parent."He condemned "those who spread lies and division" through vaccine misinformation or conspiracy theories, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service."At the turn of the 20th Century, nearly one in every four children born in Barnsley died," he said."Two of the leading causes were smallpox and measles."He asked people to get vaccinated in memory of the "thousands of Barnsley children who died of preventable infectious diseases before the advent of vaccines".Barnsley Council's public health team has been carrying out targeted work with residents to address and understand vaccine hesitancy, particularly in groups where uptake is notably low, such as among eastern European community champions have been recruited to do work including leading focus groups and distributing information in multiple Burnett welcomed the measures, but stressed that barriers to vaccination went beyond cultural said: "This is not a problem solely confined to any one ethnic group."Not being able to get time off work and not being able to afford transport costs to GPs also are barriers to vaccination that need addressing." Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North
ABC News
21-07-2025
- Health
- ABC News
The unlikely killers near Australia's most dangerous river crossing
First Nations people living in the remote Northern Territory are still not expected to reach their 70th birthday. A rare visit inside one of the NT's oldest bush clinics demonstrates why. Kakadu National Park's notorious Cahills Crossing is the only road in and out of the Aboriginal community of Gunbalanya. Every day during the dry season, drivers plough their vehicles through the East Alligator River, navigating high tides and saltwater crocodiles as tourists look on. During the wet season, the remote community is cut off by road entirely. Cahills Crossing is known for its saltwater crocodiles and dangerous river conditions. ( ABC News: Tristan Hooft ) But it's not crocodiles harming locals out here — it's preventable diseases. In the Northern Territory's remote west Arnhem Land, common health problems are growing into unlikely killers. High blood pressure is leading to kidney dysfunction and skin infections are resulting in permanent heart damage. First Nations Territorians suffer disproportionately high rates of rheumatic heart disease. ( ABC News: Dane Hirst ) A patient waits to be treated at the Gunbalanya health clinic. ( ABC News: Dane Hirst ) The decades-old clinic is still operational. ( ABC News: Dane Hirst ) Despite the region's high burden of chronic illness, many patients dread going to Gunbalanya's makeshift health clinic. The decaying facility was originally built to manage a leprosy outbreak in the mid-20th century, according to Aboriginal health organisation Red Lily Health Board. "[It] was not designed to be a community health centre," its chief executive Brad Palmer said. The clinic was transferred from the NT health department to Red Lily Health Board earlier this month. Inside the asbestos-riddled building, paint is peeling off the walls and under-resourced health staff have become experts in compromise. Aboriginal health support worker Houston Manakgu finds patients and encourages them to visit the clinic. ( ABC News: Dane Hirst ) The clinic has fallen into disrepair. ( ABC News: Dane Hirst ) Health clinic staff make do with few resources. ( ABC News: Dane Hirst ) The biggest issue for patients is a lack of privacy. About 1,350 people from different clan groups live in Gunbalanya and everyone knows each other. The local clinic is so small that patients are sometimes asked to discuss personal health information in the same room as an acquaintance. Health support worker Houston Manakgu said the building's inappropriate design was a major deterrent for patients. "In Aboriginal culture way, man and female … have to be separate," he said. Avoiding "poison cousins" — certain relatives who must be avoided under Aboriginal kinship systems — is near impossible inside a bush clinic with one unisex toilet. Houston Manakgu says the Gunbalanya clinic does not consider cultural protocol. ( ABC News: Dane Hirst ) There's only one unisex toilet inside the building. ( ABC News: Dane Hirst ) The building is riddled with dangerous asbestos. ( ABC News: Dane Hirst ) Mr Manakgu said many people avoided the clinic altogether. "[They] say, 'Big mob in there, maybe we come back later'," he said. Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance NT chief executive John Paterson said delaying medical treatment was a common issue in remote communities, where chronic illnesses often developed into health emergencies. "If it goes untreated, then it worsens and worsens," he said. "It gets to the stage where it requires the patient being uplifted from remote communities and brought into an already overcrowded Royal Darwin Hospital." John Paterson says preventable diseases are turning into serious medical emergencies. ( ABC News: Dane Hirst ) Recognising the building's flaws, the former Labor government promised Gunbalanya a new health clinic in 2020. Five years later, the community is still waiting. Now, there's even further doubt after the Country Liberal Party government removed the $20 million project from its first budget. "My first reaction was surprise, because it had been promised," Mr Palmer said. "The design had been completed, the tender documents had been completed. It seemed it was a done deal." Red Lily Health Board chief executive Brad Palmer said his team was blindsided by the funding cut. ( ABC News: Dane Hirst ) Mr Palmer said Red Lily Health Board had since been kept in the dark about the project's future. "We just don't know anything," he said. "There hasn't really been any explanation of the reason why it was removed from the budget." In a statement, an NT government spokesperson blamed the previous Labor government for promising infrastructure projects it couldn't deliver. "Labor had announced a record number of projects but failed to allocate sufficient funding to deliver them," the spokesperson said. "We have not ruled out delivering a new health clinic at Gunbalanya, and it remains on the forward program for consideration." Mr Paterson said this kind of chopping and changing of government policy was holding Australia back from closing the gap on life expectancy. The NT has Australia's lowest life expectancy. ( ABC News: Dane Hirst ) Australia hopes to close the life expectancy gap by 2031. ( ABC News: Dane Hirst ) The most recent Productivity Commission data shows First Nations boys born in 2020-2022 are expected to live to about 72 years and girls to 75 years, while non-Indigenous children are expected to live to about 80 years and 84 years respectively. The gap is even wider in the remote Northern Territory, which has the lowest life expectancy in Australia. In communities like Gunbalanya, Aboriginal men are expected to live to about 65 years, while Aboriginal women are expected to live to about 69 years, data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows. The data shows life expectancy for First Nations women in the NT is worse today than it was 15 years ago. "Politicians and governments will only do stuff on a three-year cycle in between each election," Mr Paterson said. "There's no long-term generational planning and funding commitment to really make a difference." Red Lily Health Board chairperson Marcia Brennan said listening to Aboriginal people was key to making progress. Marcia Brennan says improving First Nations health outcomes requires genuine collaboration. ( ABC News: Dane Hirst ) She said the government's failure to consider cultural protocol at the health clinic was just one example. "In our community, culture will always be there," she said. "It doesn't matter if we're in a balanda building or at home." Ms Brennan said the clinic's transition from the NT health department into Aboriginal community control was a step in the right direction. "Aboriginal staff need to be in Aboriginal clinics," she said. "We have to work together." Credits
New York Times
04-07-2025
- Health
- New York Times
‘I Never Want to See a Case of Polio, but I'm Very Fearful I Will'
Pediatricians like me come to our job with the conviction that children should not die — that whatever might hurt or kill them should be prevented, whether through car seat laws, safety tops on medication bottles, pediatric cancer research or, above all, routine vaccination. Now we're worried that vaccination will become less routine and less available. That the health care structure that keeps children safe may be under threat. That we will watch children suffer and even die, watch families grieve — and that part of the horror will be knowing that these were preventable diseases. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's vaccine advisory group met last week — its first meeting since the health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., dismissed the panel's 17 experts and installed eight handpicked replacements, several with histories of vaccine skepticism. There, the panel, down to seven members after one withdrew, announced a review of the entire childhood vaccine schedule. That's scary. The recommendations of the panel, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, help determine what vaccines are provided at no cost for about half of American children through the Vaccines for Children Program and influence coverage by private insurers. If the committee turns science-based recommendations into wishy-washy talk-to-your-doctor suggestions or, worse, takes certain vaccines off the schedule, America risks unraveling the infrastructure that keeps children vaccinated and without polio, diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, measles, mumps, rubella, bacterial meningitis and all the other horrors. 'Every day I have at least one parent ask me, 'Are you still going to be able to give vaccines? Can I do something now in case they're not available later?'' said my colleague Dr. Jane Guttenberg, a pediatrician in New York City. Can we imagine a two-tiered system in which protection is available only to those with the means to pay hundreds of dollars for a vaccination? Can we imagine not giving a vaccine that a child needs? 'I've been thinking about that a lot,' said Dr. Sally Goza, a primary care pediatrician in suburban Georgia. 'Vaccines cost us money. I can't just give vaccines away. I wish I could.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
The Independent
01-07-2025
- Health
- The Independent
The reasons parents are more reluctant to vaccinate their children
UK childhood vaccination rates have declined over the past decade, with none of the routine jabs meeting the 95 per cent coverage target since 2021, putting children at risk of preventable diseases. A new report by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health identifies "stubborn barriers" to vaccination beyond just hesitancy, including difficulties booking appointments, inconvenient clinic locations, and lack of continuity in NHS care. The study also highlights issues such as a lack of reminders from GP surgeries, absence of digital records, and fear of judgment among parents. Disparities in vaccine uptake are noted among ethnic minority groups, socio-economically disadvantaged families, and migrant communities due to language barriers and digital exclusion. Recommendations include better training for health professionals, increased pro-vaccine messaging on social media, mandatory vaccination education in schools, and improving access through flexible booking and wider clinic availability.
Al Jazeera
26-06-2025
- Health
- Al Jazeera
UN reports uptick in preventable diseases in Gaza due to Israeli blockade
The United Nations humanitarian agency (OCHA) has warned that preventable diseases in Gaza are on the rise and killing civilians due to the lack of desperately needed medicine and clean water. OCHA in a statement on Thursday said that in the past two weeks, 'more than 19,000 cases of acute watery diarrhoea have been recorded, alongside over 200 cases each of acute jaundice syndrome and bloody diarrhoea '. 'These outbreaks are directly linked to the lack of clean water and sanitation in Gaza, underscoring the urgent need for fuel, medical supplies, and water, sanitation and hygiene items to prevent further collapse of the public health system,' the agency added. Israel's blockade on fuel entry into Gaza has paralysed the territory's desalination plants and water system. The Israeli military has destroyed much of Gaza, displaced nearly the entire population of the territory and placed a suffocating siege on the enclave. Besides the dire humanitarian conditions, the Israeli military continues to kill dozens of Palestinians in Gaza daily. Leading rights groups and UN experts have described the Israeli campaign as a genocide. OCHA said on Thursday that more than 20 people were killed and about 70 others were injured after a strike on Deir el-Balah, central Gaza. Medical sources told Al Jazeera Arabic that Israeli attacks killed at least 71 people across Gaza on Thursday. Since Israel's war on Gaza began in October 2023, at least 56,259 people have been killed, and 132,458 others have been wounded, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. After a more than two-month blockade of essential goods entering Gaza, the Israeli government announced it was allowing aid to re-enter the enclave in May. However, due to Israeli restrictions, the amount of aid entering has been minimal, with aid agencies referring to it as a 'drop in the ocean'. Much of the aid allowed in has been through the United States and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which has been condemned by aid agencies as a 'weaponisation' of humanitarian goods. On Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a video message that the army was being asked to draft a new plan to deliver aid to Gaza after unverified footage showed masked men on top of aid trucks in northern Gaza. While Israel has claimed the men were Hamas members, Palestinian clan leaders with no affiliation with the group said the masked men were protecting the truck from being looted. Multiple UN officials have refuted Israel's claims that Hamas steals humanitarian aid. Last month, Israeli officials acknowledged arming criminal gangs linked to looting the assistance in order to rival Hamas.
