New South Wales Public Health Bulletin

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AIM: To examine trends in the incidence of typhoid fever in NSW to inform the development of prevention strategies. METHODS: Typhoid fever case notification data for the period 2005-2011 were extracted from the NSW Notifiable Conditions Information Management System. Population incidence rates were calculated and analysed by demographic variables. RESULTS: There were 250 case notifications of typhoid fever in NSW from 2005 to 2011, of which 240 are likely to have been acquired overseas...

AIM: This study explores knowledge and beliefs about longer-term health risks related to alcohol consumption among Australian adults. METHODS: Data were drawn from the 2009 Cancer Institute NSW Lifestyle and Cancer Survey, a telephone survey of adults in NSW. Participants (n=1255) were asked about their alcohol consumption, knowledge of the Australian guidelines (revised in 2009), and personal perceptions and beliefs about longer-term health risks from alcohol consumption...

UNLABELLED: Awareness of the benefits of environmentally sustainable health care is growing. In the United Kingdom in 2010, an educational intervention on sustainable health care was successfully delivered to public health registrars. We conducted a feasibility study to test the intervention in Australia. METHODS: The intervention consisted of a 1-day workshop delivered face-to-face covering climate change, sustainability and health. The workshop was modified, piloted and then delivered to 33 health professionals...

UNLABELLED: Telecommuniciation technologies, including audio and videoconferencing facilities, afford geographically dispersed health professionals the opportunity to connect and collaborate with others. Recognised for enabling tele-consultations and tele-collaborations between teams of health care professionals and their patients, these technologies are also well suited to the delivery of distance learning programs, known as tele-learning. AIM: To determine whether tele-learning delivery methods achieve equivalent learning outcomes when compared with traditional face-to-face education delivery methods...

AIM: To assess reporting characteristics of commonly dichotomised pregnancy outcomes (e.g. preterm/term birth); and to investigate whether behaviours (e.g. smoking), medical conditions (e.g. diabetes) or interventions (e.g. induction) were reported differently by pregnancy outcomes. METHODS: Further analysis of a previous validation study was undertaken, in which 1680 perinatal records were compared with data extracted from medical records. Continuous and polytomous variables were dichotomised, and risk factor reporting was assessed within the dichotomised outcome groups...

AIM: An analysis of general practice data for rural communities in close proximity to coal mining and coal-fired power generation in the Hunter Valley region of NSW was conducted to identify unusual patterns of illness. METHODS: Bettering the Evaluation and Care of Health general practice consultation data from the Hunter Valley region for 1998-2010 were compared with data from all other rural NSW residents. RESULTS: There were no significantly higher rates of problems managed or medications prescribed for Hunter Valley region residents compared with the rest of rural NSW...

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Twenty-one percent of the world's tuberculosis cases are found in the Western Pacific Region. The region has demonstrated a lower rate of decline in incidence than the regions of Africa, the Americas and Europe. Issues around drug resistance, human immunodeficiency virus and diabetes impact on the burden of tuberculosis disease in the Western Pacific Region. Australia has exhibited a low and relatively stable tuberculosis incidence rate but has not progressed toward the desired international goal for tuberculosis elimination (<1 case per million population)...

This report describes the ongoing transmission of tuberculosis in Aboriginal communities in NSW. From October 2000 to July 2012 there were 30 linked cases of tuberculosis diagnosed in Aboriginal people - 22 in the North Coast area of NSW, with a further three cases in Sydney and five in southern Queensland. It is likely that a range of factors have contributed to this ongoing transmission, including delayed diagnosis, the extensive social connections within the communities affected, and the highly mobile living arrangements of many of those affected...

A recently conducted study on tuberculosis contact investigations in six Sydney tuberculosis clinics - that together managed 59% of all tuberculosis cases in NSW from January 2000 to December 2009 - found that the prevalence of tuberculosis among contacts was comparable to other low-incidence settings. However, only 9% of contacts with latent tuberculosis infection received treatment. This paper explores the results of the study, evaluating potential missed opportunities to prevent tuberculosis among contacts, and discussing the mechanisms in decision making about treatment of latent tuberculosis infection...

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