Economic crisis spawns depression booklet

The national depression initiative, Beyond Blue has released a booklet to help Australians cope with the global economic crisis.

Beyond Blue chairman, Jeff Kennett says many families will find themselves in financial hardship over the next 18 months.

He says the booklet details strategies on how to cope with stress associated with financial loss and retrenchment.

"It's a booklet that helps to focus our attention through education on the things that we need to do if in fact we're in either of those two categories," he said.

"I think more importantly it's designed to educate us all about how to deal with change that might affect our lives and that of our families."

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Lung disease costing $9b a year

The Australian Lung Foundation says new research has found an alarming number of Australians are affected by chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

The disease, commonly caused by cigarette smoking, is a long-term illness causing shortness of breath, emphysema and chronic bronchitis.

A report by Access Economics has found almost one in five Australians aged over 40 have COPD, putting a direct $900 million burden on the health care system each year.

The report estimates overall costs to the economy at almost $9 billion annually.

Professor Peter Frith from the respiratory services unit at Adelaide Hospital says people need to made more aware of the disease so it can be detected earlier.

"Where we can get them to take on treatments that will actually help them to prevent them becoming disabled and dying early," he said.

Quote: Lung disease caused by cigarette smoking may cost $9b a year but when you subtract that figure from the Federal Governments tax on cigaretts (that was meant to cover ill-health) then the figure is diminished somewhat, so there is a bit of propaganda here by our corporate goverment and media. That is not to say people shouldn't give up smoking. Of course they should. Now!

Punishing HIV transmitters won't stop disease: Kirby

High Court judge Michael Kirby has told an overseas conference that punishing those who transmit HIV to others is unlikely to put a stop to rising rates of infection.

Speaking at a criminal law conference in Dublin, Justice Kirby addressed the growing rates of HIV infection in Australia and overseas as well as the increased pressure for the transmission of the virus to be criminalised.

He issued a warning to law makers against the use of counter productive laws that punish those who transmit HIV.

Justice Kirby said because of his sexuality, he found himself at the centre of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s and lost a number of friends to the disease.

He said the criminalisation of HIV transmission is one of the most important challenges facing the criminal law sector and said punitive measures are unlikely to succeed given there is no effective vaccine.

Alcohol boosts cancer risks: experts

A new study has found that drinking just two standard alcoholic drinks a day significantly increases the risks of developing breast, bowel, throat and mouth cancer.

[What about the rest of the body? Liver? Kidney?, Brain? etc??? M,M,M, My Cirrhosis! Not to mention death by stupidity see links below; i.e. Balmain hotels fill as young mourn pub mates]

The New South Wales Government is releasing the Cancer Institute report, which draws together the results of an international audit of recent cancer research.

The report found that consuming two alcoholic drinks a day increases a person's risk of mouth cancer by 75 per cent, and breast cancer by 22 per cent.

The Assistant Health Minister Verity Firth says the risks of excessive drinking are well known, but the report shows even moderate drinking can be dangerous.



"What this report shows us is that it really only has to be two standard drinks a day before you increase your chances of developing breast cancer by up to 22 per cent," she said.

"So it really is seen as linking what was previously seen as quite moderate levels of alcohol intake to severely increasing risks of cancer."

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Balmain hotels fill as young mourn pub mates
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Concern over doctor's kidney selling comments

An ACT specialist has renewed debate about how to overcome the crisis in organ donations by suggesting young healthy people be allowed to sell their kidneys.

Canberra nephrologist Gavin Carney is quoted as saying the Federal Government should allow transplants to go ahead for a fee of $50,000, but transplant organisations are strongly opposed to the move.

Selling or buying organs in Australia is illegal and carries a penalty of six months jail or fines of over $4,000.

Dr Gavin Carney, from the Canberra Hospital, says the country's donation crisis could be solved by allowing payment for transplants.

Dr Carney has told newspapers that young, fit and healthy people should be allowed to sell their kidneys for up to $50,000.

He says it would prevent sick patients from waiting years for transplants and stop them from travelling to Third World countries like Pakistan and India to buy organs, but the move has been condemned by Transplant Australia (TA)

TA chief executive officer Chris Thomas says providing a financial incentive is not the right approach and would leave poor and desperate people vulnerable.

"It really focuses on the poor and people who are least able to pay for things in society get attracted to these types of things and we reject that," he said.

"We'd also be concerned about what's going to happen in the long-term.

"If you accept the fact that poor people are going to look at these types of stories and say 'well, maybe that's for me', they're probably also more likely to suffer from lifestyle diseases later in life and may end up needing a kidney transplant themselves sometime in the future because of our increasing rates of obesity."

Black market dangers

Mr Thomas also warned of the dangers that could confront those who choose to buy black market organs in second countries.

"There are huge risks involved," he said.

"The people who are donating can have HIV, they can have hepatitis, they can have a whole range of different diseases, they may have some underlying cancer in their body.

"This type of disease can be transplanted into a healthy patient as such.

"The person returns to Australia and faces a problem that they never even anticipated.

"We do have a brilliant system in Australia, once we get the organs, once we get the donors to agree."

Kidney Health Australia (KHA), formerly known as the Kidney Foundation, is also against the proposal.

KHA medical director Dr Tim Matthews says the average wait for a kidney transplant in Australia is four years and that each week one person dies while waiting for a transplant.

"I think it's a sign of how desperate things are and in particular how desperate some people feel having waited for a kidney for some years without any result," he said.

Dr Matthews says it is unlikely selling body parts for profit would be supported by Australians.

He says a Federal Government task force has just done a review just of organ donation and made 53 recommendations.

He is optimistic Australia can do better with the current system.

"The state of South Australia has had twice the rate of organ donation than New South Wales has had over the last 10 years," he said.

"There's no reason, no essential reason why New South Wales can't match that."