Tagged: Public Health

Featured image: Sweet Relief: Eric Crampton on the Sugar Tax

Sweet Relief: Eric Crampton on the Sugar Tax - The Dismal Science

Eric Crampton • Mar 08, 2018 •

For the past several years, public health lobbyists have pretended that all opposition to sugar taxes is ideologically motivated or dishonest. They have argued that the only thing stopping the government from implementing their beneficent proposals has been the actions of nefarious interest groups. And so it is interesting to read what the Ministry of Health’s officials actually thought about … Read More

Featured image: UNICEF and friends VS the outspoken Anti-vaxxers

UNICEF and friends VS the outspoken Anti-vaxxers - BioBlog

Alison Campbell • Mar 07, 2018 •

Back in mid-February, UNICEF NZ posted a piece on the importance of vaccines. Shortly thereafter, the comments thread had been overrun by anti-vaccination pro-disease activists. (I have to say, I’m really impressed with the person who does UNICEF’s social media. Talk about grace and dignity under fire!) This seems to happen every time a story about vaccine-preventable disease hits the … Read More

Featured image: Why we can’t catch up with the mumps outbreak

Why we can’t catch up with the mumps outbreak - Guest Work

Guest Work • Feb 12, 2018 •

Ayesha Verrall New Zealand is in the grip of its worst mumps outbreak in decades. The outbreak started in Auckland early last year and was initially focused on five schools in the West of the city. Since then there have been over 1000 cases with some spreading to other centres around the country. Mumps causes a fever, headache, muscle … Read More

Featured image: What public health lessons can NZ still learn from the United States?

What public health lessons can NZ still learn from the United States? - Public Health Expert

Public Health Expert • Jan 30, 2018 •

Prof Nick Wilson, A/Prof George Thomson The United States has many major health problems – including declining life expectancy and an exorbitantly expensive health care system. However, the large number of state and local governments provide a wealth of potential lessons that NZ could learn from. In this blog we briefly consider some of these, particularly in the domains of … Read More

Featured image: How climate change affects the building blocks for health

How climate change affects the building blocks for health - Guest Work

Guest Work • Oct 26, 2017 •

By Alistair Woodward, University of Auckland In August last year, a third of the residents of the North Island township Havelock North fell acutely ill with gastroenteritis after their water was contaminated with campylobacter. More intense rainfalls have caused flooding throughout New Zealand, as seen here in Northland. From www.shutterstock.com, CC BY-ND Following a long dry spell, … Read More

Featured image: ‘Junk’ science: Children and advertising study

‘Junk’ science: Children and advertising study - The Dismal Science

Eric Crampton • Oct 12, 2017 •

It is difficult to see what good purpose was served by this study. The Otago people (in conjunction with Auckland’s public health group) put cameras on kids that would take snapshots every six seconds. Then they poured through the footage to see how often the cameras, and presumably the kids, saw things that Otago people have long wanted to have … Read More

Featured image: New Zealand’s health service performs well, but inequities remain high

New Zealand’s health service performs well, but inequities remain high - Guest Work

Guest Work • Sep 21, 2017 •

By Jackie Cumming, Victoria University of Wellington This article is part of The Conversation global series about health systems, examining different health care systems all over the world. New Zealand’s health care system is comprehensive and largely publicly funded. It generally performs well, but there are significant inequities in access and outcomes. As international comparisons show, New … Read More

Featured image: Anti-vaccination activists – deluded and dangerous

Anti-vaccination activists – deluded and dangerous - BioBlog

Alison Campbell • Sep 14, 2017 •

The latest news reports indicate that the mumps outbreak in Auckland is spreading. As you might expect, the very first commenter on the FB page for that story is someone claiming that vaccines don’t cure mumps and offer a significant risk to health. (I wish Moveable Type allowed the Comic Sans font…) The only reason I bother dipping … Read More

Featured image: A Statue of Merit: Dr Margaret Cruickshank and the 1918 influenza pandemic

A Statue of Merit: Dr Margaret Cruickshank and the 1918 influenza pandemic - Public Health Expert

Public Health Expert • Sep 12, 2017 •

Nick Wilson, Ben Schrader, Geoff Rice, Christine Clement, George Thomson, Catharine Ferguson, Michael Baker Some statues are getting bad press at present – and rightly so for the Confederate military statues which represent the racist history of the Southern United States. But in this blog we briefly look at a particular New Zealand statue that we think characterises some of … Read More