2023 Murray Valley Encephalitis outbreak in Australia

BackgroundSchools provide opportunities for parents and the wider community to connect and support the physical and emotional wellbeing of their children. Schools therefore have the potential to play a role in the socialisation of alcohol use through school policies and practices regarding consumption of alcohol by adults at school events in the presence of children.MethodsThis survey was undertaken to a) compare the extent to which alcohol is used at secondary school events, when children are present, in the states of New South Wales (NSW) and Victoria (VIC), Australia; b) describe principals’ level of agreement with these practices; c) their awareness of state policies on this issue; and d) the predictors of such events. A random sample of secondary schools, stratified to represent metropolitan and non-metropolitan schools were invited to participate. Bivariate and multivariate analysis were conducted with p values < 0.05 considered significant.ResultsA total of 241 (43 %) schools consented to participate in the study. Fifteen percent of participating NSW schools and 57 % of VIC schools held at least one event in which alcohol was consumed by adults in the presence of children in the year before the survey. Of the 100 reported events, 78 % were Year 12 graduation dinners, and 18 % were debutante balls. Compared to NSW principals, VIC principals were significantly more likely to agree with the use of alcohol at these events; significantly less likely to be aware of their state education department policy on this issue; have a policy at their own school or support policy that prohibits alcohol use at such events; and less likely to report having enough information to make decisions about this.ConclusionsThere is a growing focus on adults’ use of alcohol at school events when children are present. Schools can play an important role in educating and socialising children about alcohol via both the curriculum and policies regarding adults’ alcohol use at school events. Findings from this study suggest education department and school-based policies that prohibit or restrict the use of alcohol, are significant predictors of adults’ alcohol use at school events when children are present.

Profiling the diversity of Cryptosporidium species and genotypes in wastewater treatment plants in Australia using next generation sequencing

Ecology and detection of harmful freshwater fish ciliate parasites Chilodonella spp. in aquaculture

Economic analysis of out-of-pocket costs among people in opioid agonist treatment: A cross-sectional survey in three Australian jurisdictions.

In this paper, we offer a conjunctural analysis of policing and incarceration, examining their expansion in relation to structural economic conditions over the last 50 years and interrogating how the sudden onset of the Covid-19 pandemic enabled extraordinary growth in policing powers in the Australian jurisdictions of New South Wales (NSW) and Victoria (VIC). We examine how popular support for police-led responses to crisis and fines as a common-sense solution to social problems were sought during the period that the Public Health Orders were in effect in the two states. We argue that the discursive project of naturalizing the police-led response to the pandemic—via official communications from the state governments as well as media coverage of the pandemic—attempts to further entrench a vision of law and order governance in which infrastructures of discipline and punishment are necessary and inevitable. We identify this vision as a direct barrier to abolition and a significant limit on the capacity to imagine alternative frameworks for justice. We end by considering a small archive of tweets from users in NSW and VIC published on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter (now called X) in 2020–21. We argue that this archive registers the way the common-sense status of the fine as an efficient, effective, and equitable punishment gives way to punitive fantasies about police and prisons. We read this archive alongside the broad refusal to pay Covid-related fines and the ongoing legal disputes contesting the legitimacy of their issuance, concluding by proposing that the conjunctural moment of the Covid-19 pandemic has given rise to unresolved contradictions between the naturalized logic of law and order crisis management and the potential for this logic to come undone.

Passion, People, Risk and Opportunity: The Case for Public Service Leadership in Reforming the Federation

The Chronic Dental Disease Scheme (CDSS) is the first public dental policy in Australia to attract Medicare benefits for dental services. This study examines the utilisation of a new federal method of funding dental care in Australia and provides an insight into the implications of government dental programs. The program titled; Chronic Dental Disease Scheme, provided government-subsidised dental care for people suffering from a chronic medical condition. A retrospective analysis of activity data using the relevant item numbers were extracted from the open source Medicare Benefits Schedule database (MBS) for years 2007-2009. During the study period, a total of approximately five million dental services were provided. There was a disproportionate use of services between jurisdictions. The highest proportion (66%) of services was provided in the state of New South Wales (NSW) with Victoria second (22%). The adjusted value of care provided as a proportion of comprehensive examinations ranged from $1937 in the northern territory (NT) to $2900 in NSW. The value of care per dentist ranged from nearly $80 000 down to less than $1000 and the value of care per adult of the population ranged between $53 and $1 across Australia. The highest was always in NSW and the lowest always being the NT. Fixed prosthodontics (reconstruction) accounted for the significant costs associated with the program. The scheme has been utilised above its budget estimate with prosthodontics accounting for the majority of expenses. Treatment plans differed between jurisdictions. The increase in utilisation of the scheme was coincident with periods of increased in subsidy and remuneration and has been postulated to be a main driver for its utilisation rather than the improvement in chronic health.

To compare key performance indicators for public state and territory specialist mental health services in Australia. A descriptive analysis of the publicly-available National Mental Health Performance Framework key performance indicators (KPI), hosted by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare for 2019-2020, at the national level and for states and territories. The real-world performance of public mental health services varied across the eight states and territories of Australia. Western Australia had the longest acute hospital stays and the lowest rates of involuntary admissions. Queensland (QLD) had the shortest acute hospital stays at the lowest cost. While the Australian Capital Territory had the highest rates of community treatment at the lowest cost, the Northern Territory had highest hospital and community costs with the most involuntary admissions. Victoria (VIC) had the lowest population percentage receiving specialised mental health services, the highest readmission rates after 28 days, and highest physical and mechanical restraint rates. The KPIs indicate that some states and territories show deviations from national benchmarks that may be important for consumers, carers and clinicians. For further improvement in quality and efficiency, more detailed contextual information is required, including detailed mapping of services.

The early closure of the Voluntary Dental Graduate Year Program and the Oral Health Therapy Graduate Year Program by the Australian Government adversely impacted New South Wales (NSW) Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services (ACCHSs). This led to the co-design of a small-scale oral health therapy graduate year program for ACCHSs known as the Dalang Project, which enabled oral health therapists to engage with local Aboriginal communities and implement culturally competent, practical and evidence-based oral health promotion activities. This article provides an overview of the Dalang Project and its evaluation. All graduates of the Dalang Project were invited via email and social media to complete an online survey. The survey included questions about their year in the Dalang Project, why they applied, what they liked and disliked about the project, where they planned to work post-placement, and examples of the most significant changes they observed in the communities where they were placed. Host sites were also surveyed and data were collated on clinical services performed as well as oral health promotion activity. Prior to commencing the Dalang Project only 4 of the 15 respondents came from rural or regional areas. Nine of the 15 respondents were considering working in a regional, rural or remote area prior to applying for the Dalang Project. Twelve respondents were working at the time of the survey and half were working in regional, rural or remote locations in NSW and one in the Northern Territory. All reported that they would be more likely to work in an ACCHS as a result of being a part of the Dalang Project. The majority of respondents said they would recommend the program to future graduates. A total of 63 schools, 21 preschools and 15 community health services received regular dental health education through the Dalang Project. A total of 3250 toothbrushes and fluoride toothpastes were distributed to children and families through the Dalang Project. A key part of the program was the installation of refrigerated and filtered water fountains in schools where there was no free filtered or refrigerated water supply. The inclusion of this component in the program was part of the co-design process and links the program to the wider population health strategies in NSW to help prevent childhood obesity. The Dalang Project is an example of a successful co-designed project that has positively impacted oral health service delivery for Aboriginal children and has provided a valuable experience for new graduate oral health therapists working in ACCHSs. Overall, the Dalang Project was found to be a positive professional experience for the oral health therapists with many remaining in rural, remote and regional locations after completing the program.

A previous study of the prevalence of multiple sclerosis (MS) in 1981 among immigrants from the United Kingdom and Ireland to Australia found that the prevalence for those with age at immigration (AAI) under 15 years of age did not differ from the older immigrants. We have reanalysed the original materials as well as census data for 1901–1981 for UKI and other high MS risk country immigrants. There was a highly significant trend in the prevalence rates of all Australians from New South Wales (NSW) to South Australia (SA) to Western Australia (WA) to Queensland (QLD). Rates by state among the Australian-born were almost identical to these, but there was no prevalence gradient for the UKI-born. The denominator population at risk of MS by AAI was calculated from special census tables of length of residence in Australia by age 0–79 in 1981 for UKI immigrants 1947–1981. The numerator was limited to the subset of 258 MS (Group II) also immigrating in 1947 and later, and age 0–79 in 1981. The absolute risk of MS for these migrants to the four states entering at age 0–14 was 22/100,000, significantly less than for all older age groups; age 15–39 immigrants had a risk of 54/100,000. Similar risk ratios for 0–14 versus 15–39 by state were 31 versus 61 (NSW), 29 versus 44 (QLD), 11 versus 50 (SA), 15 versus 51 (WA).

This article describes Chinese mining in colonial Australia using the examples of gold mining in southern New South Wales (NSW) and the Northern Territory as well as tin mining in northern NSW. Chinese miners were often more successful than their European counterparts. One reason for this success was the effective use that the Chinese made of large cooperative groups, a particularly efficient way to work a mining claim. Earlier studies of Chinese mining in Australia chiefly chronicled the racism and violence experienced by the Chinese and underestimated their significant economic contribution. Reasserting their economic importance challenges an exclusive focus on race.

Whither the Aborigine

Lead contamination remains a persistent global environmental problem, the hazards of which are often difficult to identify without specific and targeted research. This study examines environmental contamination arising from the widespread use of lead solder in the joints of large gravity water supply pipelines. Contamination of adjacent grazing lands and subsequent poisoning of domestic livestock are evaluated. In particular, the study demonstrates that replacement of lead joints along an above ground 70 km water supply pipeline in central New South Wales (NSW), Australia, has caused soil lead contamination of up to 20,600 mg/kg. Contamination either side of the pipeline corridor extends to ∼10 m before surface soil lead values correspond more closely to natural background concentrations of 26 mg/kg. The estimated total volume of contaminated soil requiring remediation is 21,000 m3. Contamination is linked to toxicity and mortality in several farm animals and to elevated contamination of grass fodder (up to 50 mg/kg of lead) close to the pipeline. Other similar large-scale above ground reticulation systems in the Sydney (NSW) Metropolitan region and adjacent to the 560 km long Kalgoorlie (Western Australia) Golden Pipeline are shown to present similar environmental hazards. The use of lead solder joints in other international large scale reticulation networks are also identified, demonstrating that this specific anthropogenic hazard is likely to be a more global problem, which has not has been detailed in the research literature to any significant extent.

Capsular types A and D of Pasteurella multocida cause economic losses in swine because of their association with progressive atrophic rhinitis (PAR) and enzootic pneumonia. There have been no studies comparing whole-cell DNA profiles of isolates associated with these two porcine respiratory diseases. Twenty-two isolates of P. multocida from diseased pigs in different geographic localities within Australia were characterised genotypically by restriction endonuclease analysis (REA) with the enzyme CfoI. Seven of 12 P. multocida isolates from nasal swabs from pigs in herds where PAR was either present or suspected displayed a capsular type D phenotype. These were shown to possess the toxA gene by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and Southern hybridisation, and further substantiated by production of cytotoxin in vitro. The CfoI profile of one of these seven isolates, which was from the initial outbreak of PAR in Australia (in Western Australia, WA), was identical with profiles of all six other toxigenic isolates from sporadic episodes in New South Wales (NSW). The evidence suggests that the strain involved in the initial outbreak was responsible for the spread of PAR to the eastern states of Australia. Another 10 isolates, representing both capsular types A and D, were isolated exclusively from porcine lung lesions after sporadic outbreaks of enzootic pneumonia in NSW and WA. CfoI restriction endonuclease profiles of these isolates revealed considerable genomic heterogeneity. Furthermore, none of these possessed the toxA gene. This suggests that P. multocida strains with the toxA gene do not have a competitive survival advantage in the lower respiratory tract or that toxin production does not play a role in the pathology of pneumonic lesions, or both. REA with polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and silver staining was found to be a practical and discriminatory tool for epidemiological tracing of P. multocida outbreaks associated with PAR or pneumonia in pigs.

The Ord–Victoria area survey was conducted between 1949 and 1952 though not updated and published until 1970. The survey covered ~232,300 km2 in six physical regions. The survey recognised 50 land systems ranging from ~233 km2 to 41,960 km2 that have between three and eight land units. The report describes the relative area and distribution, landforms, soils and vegetation of 233 units, showing their position in the landscape on block diagrams. The report has seven individual disciplinary chapters: Climate — describes and relates general climatic characteristics to the growth of agricultural plants and pastures, and estimates irrigation water requirements Geology — describes eight periods of geological history and relations between land systems, lithology and stratigraphic units Geomorphology — recognises three major regions, one with six sub-regions, outlines landscape history, and describes 27 mapped geomorphological units Soils — identifies five broad profile types with 37 soil families in 16 great soil groups, shows their relation to land systems and types of pasture land, and discusses agricultural characteristics Vegetation — identifies plant and community types in relation to environments and describes 41 tree shrub and grass layer communities Pasture Lands — outlines key features of the cattle industry and groups land systems to identify and describe 13 classes of pasture lands Agricultural Potential — describes status (in 1970) and incorporates information from the survey and research to assess potential for dryland and irrigated agriculture Map 1 — Land Systems arranged in Pasture Lands of the Ord–Victoria area, Western Australia and Northern Territory, Australia by GA Stewart, RA Perry, SJ Paterson, JR Sleeman, and DM Traves. Scale 1:1,000,000. CSIRO Land Research Series No. 28, 1970. Map 2 — Geomorphology of the Ord–Victoria area, Western Australia and Northern Territory, Australia by SJ Paterson. Scale 1:1,000,000. Inset with Geology by DM Traves, PR Dunn and PJ Jones. CSIRO Land Research Series No. 28, 1970. Map 3 — Geological map of the Ord–Victoria Region, Northern Territory and Western Australia by DM Traves based on traverses and air photo interpretation carried out in conjunction with the Land Research and Regional Survey Sction CSIRO in 1949 and 1952. CSIRO Land Research Series No. 28, 1970. Map 4 — Coastline strip map of the Ord–Victoria Region, Northern Territory and Western Australia, illustrating joint control of coastline configuration. Geomorphology by SJ Paterson, CSIRO, 1954. CSIRO Land Research Series No. 28, 1970. Editor's Note: Since the survey, major developments have occurred. The Ord irrigation scheme commenced in 1953 with the current dam, forming Lake Argyle, completed in 1972. The irrigated area, ~12,500 ha in 2011, is projected to reach 45,000 ha. The Argyle diamond resource was discovered in 1979 and the current mine commenced production in 1985. Tourism is also a major industry.