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Tag: Australia

Topic: rapid testsView all posts for the topic: rapid tests

What are the most reliable rapid antigen tests?

Published May 6, 2024

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Published by: newsGP
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By Michelle Wisbey

A new study has analysed 26 RATs from Australia and Canada, finding only six could effectively detect the lowest concentrations of COVID-19.

Patients across the globe have come to rely on rapid antigen tests (RATs) to confirm a COVID-19 diagnosis, but a new Australian study has revealed most are not producing accurate results.

Researchers from James Cook University (JCU) say they were left ‘shocked’ after an analysis of 26 RATs from Australia and Canada found just six were effective at detecting the lowest concentration of COVID-19.

One Canadian test failed to detect the COVID-19 protein entirely at any level of concentration.

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Topic: rapid testsView all posts for the topic: rapid tests

International study highlights best RATs

Published May 2, 2024

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Published by: James Cook University
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A ground-breaking study by James Cook University researchers has produced damning findings on several COVID-19 Rapid Antigen Tests (RATs) available in Australia and overseas.

The new joint study by JCU and National Research Council Canada analysed 16 RATs approved by Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) and 10 by Health Canada, using a JCU-developed COVID-19 protein and its Canadian counterpart as reference materials.

Out of the total 26 RATs compared, only six were found to be effective at detecting the lowest concentration of the COVID-19 reference proteins in the dilution series used for benchmarking.

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Topic: activismView all posts for the topic: activism

Clean Air Club Is Organizing Musicians to Make COVID-Safer Shows and Spaces

Published April 18, 2024

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Published by: Teen Vogue
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By Mary Retta

Last year, Chicago resident Emily Dupree attended a concert with her partner, who caught COVID-19 at the show. While Dupree treated her sick partner and tried to avoid getting ill in their shared home, some thoughts began to form in her mind. Dupree and her partner still wore masks everywhere they went, and had adopted air purification in their home early in the pandemic to mitigate the risk of transmission. But she knew that wasn’t the case for most people.

Around this time, Dupree came across a question the father of prolific abolitionist organizer Mariame Kaba used to ask her when she was frustrated: “It sounds like this is something you are very upset about. What will you do about it?” That question helped Dupree “channel a lot of despair I was feeling during the pandemic into concrete action,” she told Teen Vogue. And Clean Air Club was born.

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Topic: AustraliaView all posts for the topic: Australia

Video | Victorian children are diagnosed with long Covid

Published March 31, 2024

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Published by: 7 News Australia
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Victorian children as young as eight-years-old are being diagnosed with long Covid. Health experts warn it’s becoming more common, putting further pressure on the state’s health system.

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Topic: AustraliaView all posts for the topic: Australia

Almost one-in-five suffering from long COVID

Published March 28, 2024

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Published by: ANU Reporter
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A study of more than 11,000 Australians who tested positive to COVID-19 in 2022 has revealed almost one-in-five were still experiencing ongoing symptoms three months after their initial diagnosis, according to new research from The Australian National University (ANU).

The study was conducted in Western Australia (WA), with participants drawn from the almost 71,000 adults who tested positive to COVID-19 in WA between 16 July 2022 and 3 August 2022.

Lead researcher, Dr Mulu Woldegiorgis, said the results show the risk of developing long COVID from the Omicron variant is higher than previously thought.

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Topic: AustraliaView all posts for the topic: Australia

Omicron linked to more long COVID-19 cases: study

Published March 28, 2024

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Published by: The Canberra Times
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By Aaron Bunch

The Omicron coronavirus variant could be causing more cases of long COVID than earlier versions of the disease, scientists say.

A study of more than 11,000 Western Australians infected in 2022 found almost one in five continued to suffer symptoms three months after they initially tested positive.

Epidemiologist Mulu Woldegiorgis said the findings show the Omicron variant puts patients at greater risk of developing long COVID than previously thought.

“It is more than double the prevalence reported in a review of Australian data from earlier in the pandemic, and higher than similar studies done in the UK and Canada,” she said on Thursday.

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Topic: shinglesView all posts for the topic: shingles

Shingles cases are increasing in New South Wales. Experts say COVID might be why

Published March 21, 2024

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Published by: ABC News
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By Sam Nichols

I think that GPs would all agree that we’ve probably seen more cases of shingles over the last period of time over COVID. Absolutely, shingles is an illness that, theoretically and I think in practical reality, has been increased through COVID-19.

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Topic: AustraliaView all posts for the topic: Australia

Too many patients are catching COVID in Australian hospitals, doctors say. So why are hospitals rolling back precautions?

Published February 10, 2024

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Published by: ABC News
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By Hayley Gleeson

Steve Irons’ older brother Jim was only supposed to be in hospital for a short while. A retired stockman from Maryborough, Queensland, Jim was diagnosed with leukaemia just before Christmas in 2022. He was flown to Brisbane for testing, then back to Maryborough Hospital, where doctors were putting together a plan for him to be treated at home.

But a patient in the room next door to Jim’s had COVID, Steve says, and on January 14 last year, Jim tested positive too. “After four days, when the hospital told me he was no longer infectious, I took the risk and decided to visit him,” says Steve, who’d flown up from Tasmania. “I sat with him for three days, playing country music, reading to him.”

And then, on Saturday January 21, Jim Irons died of COVID-19 pneumonia and acute myeloid leukaemia, aged 79. It still distresses Steve to know his brother would have lived longer had he not caught a dangerous virus in a place he should have been safe.

Continue readingToo many patients are catching COVID in Australian hospitals, doctors say. So why are hospitals rolling back precautions?
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Topic: AustraliaView all posts for the topic: Australia

Queensland GPs flooded with patients reporting heart problems after long Covid

Published January 14, 2024

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Published by: The Courier Mail
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By Jackie Sinnerton

Queenslanders are flooding GPs practices with heart problems sparked by long Covid, the state’s peak medical body has revealed.

Doctors are seeing more patients with myocarditis and pericarditis due to inflammation caused by the virus that can cause palpitations chest pain or shortness of breath.

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Topic: long COVIDView all posts for the topic: long COVID

Long COVID will take your health, your wealth — then it will come for your marriage

Published December 26, 2023

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Published by: ABC News
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By Hayley Gleeson

I’m talking about the workforce being diminished, the fact that people can’t think the way they used to think — we’re losing intellectual capital, we’re losing physical capital, we’re losing social capital.

And I wish people would understand the urgency of solving this, because what I’m seeing various countries doing in terms of their response to long COVID is they’re throwing a token amount of money towards research and saying, ‘Well, that will solve it’, patting themselves on the back without understanding that this is just as large an existential threat as climate change.

— Dr. David Putrino
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Topic: AustraliaView all posts for the topic: Australia

Australia’s mortality rate is more than 6pc higher than expected, new Australian Bureau of Statistics report reveals

Published December 20, 2023

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Published by: ABC News
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By Brianna Morris-Grant

COVID-19 is still a “key contributor” to higher death rates as new data reveals Australia’s nationwide mortality rate is sitting at more than six per cent higher than expected.

The national excess mortality rate for the first eight months of 2023 shows deaths are estimated at 6.1 per cent above expected levels.

It marks a drop from 14.1 per cent higher than expected mortality rates during the same period in 2022, according to data released this week by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

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Topic: AustraliaView all posts for the topic: Australia

WA public hospitals strengthen mask-wearing requirements in response to surging COVID cases

Published November 17, 2023

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Published by: ABC News
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By Kate Christian

Surging COVID cases in Western Australia has seen the first public health measures introduced since the state’s COVID-19 ‘state of emergency’ declaration was dropped.

From Monday, all staff and patients in high-risk hospital clinical areas must wear masks.

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Topic: zero-COVID policiesView all posts for the topic: zero-COVID policies

All countries should pursue a Covid-19 elimination strategy: here are 16 reasons why

Published January 28, 2021

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Published by: The Guardian
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By Michael Baker, Martin McKee

The past year of Covid-19 has taught us that it is the behaviour of governments, more than the behaviour of the virus or individuals, that shapes countries’ experience of the crisis. Talking about pandemic waves has given the virus far too much agency: until quite recently the apparent waves of infection were driven by government action and inaction. It is only now with the emergence of more infectious variants that it might be appropriate to talk about a true second wave.

As governments draw up their battle plans for year two, we might expect them to base their strategies on the wealth of data about what works best. And the evidence to date suggests that countries pursuing elimination of Covid-19 are performing much better than those trying to suppress the virus. Aiming for zero-Covid is producing more positive results than trying to “live with the virus.”

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