Eric Crampton • May 11, 2018 •
Every time I think that the University of Otago’s Public Health people can’t get any worse, they go and surprise me. Today, the Initiative launched Jenesa Jeram’s excellent report on vaping and reduced-harm alternatives to smoking. It walks through the evidence on the risks of vaping, heat-not-burn products, and snus, and makes some recommendations around liberalising access so that … Read More
Guest Author • Apr 19, 2018 •
James J. Winebrake, Rochester Institute of Technology and James J Corbett, University of Delaware This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. The International Maritime Organization, a United Nations agency that regulates global shipping, is writing new rules to curb greenhouse gas emissions from ships by 2050 as … Read More
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
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
Guest Author • 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
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
Grant Jacobs • Oct 29, 2017 •
We all need a little good news from time to time. Vaccines have been a remarkably successful medical invention. Over the past year, just 12 cases of polio have been seen worldwide. Truly amazing. Also reported is that measles has fallen below 100,000 cases worldwide for the first time. A few weeks ago New Zealand was formally named as free … Read More
Guest Author • 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
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
Guest Author • 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