Guest Author • Mar 30, 2017 •
By Dave Hawkes, University of Melbourne The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine was introduced in Australia in 2007 and New Zealand in 2008 to prevent cervical cancer. It was free for women up to age 26 in Australia and to all women under 20 in New Zealand. This is because 99.7% of cervical cancers are associated with the sexually transmissible … Read More
Helen Petousis Harris • May 02, 2013 •
Persistent misuse of passively reported data – rat bags will always be rat bags but in the peer review and editorial process there is no excuse. The Annals of Medicine are the latest (vaguely respectable but not to be confused with The Annals of Internal Medicine) journal to publish the mischievous works of Lucija Tomljenovic and Christopher Shaw. Yet again the core tenet of the … Read More
Helen Petousis Harris • Apr 26, 2013 •
This week is World Immunisation Awareness week so it is obligatory to mention NZ have now achieved pretty good immunisation coverage of its infants and the gap between ethnic groups and rich and poor is all but shut. The good In December 2012 NZ European and Maori had 90%, Pacific 93% and Asian 95%. The gap between rich and poor … Read More
Siouxsie Wiles • Jun 22, 2011 •
A study just published in the Lancet suggests that Australia’s cervical cancer vaccination programme is already showing signs of success, with a decrease in the number of high-grade cervical abnormalities in vaccinated girls under 18. To quickly recap, the human papilloma virus (HPV) is a sexually transmitted infection which causes cervical cancer in women. A number of countries, including … Read More