Medica - Australian Healthcare News and Information

The National Prescribing Service has recommended that insomniacs try non-medicine strategies before using Stilnox.

GPs can now prescribe FAMVIR tablets for patients with cold sores. Just a single 1500mg oral dose, which is 3 x 500mg tablets, is highly effective, with an improvement in time to healing of all lesions by an average of 2 days, improved time to resolution of pain and tenderness by an average of 1 day, and reduced median time to return to normal skin by 21/2-days. It is recommended that single dose Famvir be initiated as soon as possible after the onset of symptoms to achieve maximum suppression of viral replication, as HSV-1 viral replication peaks in the first 24 hours after the onset of the lesions.

Federal Opposition Health spokesman Joe Hockey says it is unacceptable that the nation's peak medical body has been excluded from the 2020 summit.

Could H. Pylori infection be protective against asthma and allergies ?

The NSW government has spent almost $1 million building six heavy duty ambulances for the state's growing number of seriously obese people. 15 February 2008

Australian scientists have discovered the hormone Leptin - which suppresses hunger, may be a more powerful weight loss tool than first thought.

US researchers say implanted heart defibrillators can be hacked from the outside.
A team of computer experts, electrical engineers and cardiologists say there is no immediate danger to patients.

A new scheme is encouraging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to join the pharmacy workforce.

The Karvea and Karvezide range has just expanded. Fewer than 50% of patients achieve satisfactory blood pressure control with monotherapy and many will need combination therapy.4 Significant blood pressure reductions have been achieved in patients not at blood pressure goal with new Karvezide 300 25mg.

A U-S study has found that melanoma, the most dangerous form of skin cancer, is much deadlier when it appears on the scalp or neck than elsewhere on the body.

The National Prescribing Service has advised health professionals to be more aggressive in their management of patients with type 2 diabetes.

The NSW government says it cannot explain how a banned doctor was able to continue working in the health system, allegedly mutilating or sexually abusing hundreds of women.

Bureau of Statistics figures indictate that the leading underlying cause of death for all Australians is still ischaemic heart diseases, contributing to 18% of all male deaths and 17% of all female deaths registered in 2006.