School holidays brought the usual range of health issue, from the most extraordinary variety of minor trauma (falls, hits, scratches, fishing injuries (!), animal related injuries, infected insect wounds), many visitors with an array of medical needs, and ‘festivity related’ issues.
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We now look to the new year and – with all the priorities of life to be considered – encourage the inclusion of health issues.
I thought it appropriate to mention some of the NSW Health priorities for this year. These are well described at www.health.nsw.gov.au/priorities.
Vaccination programs are emphasised with a number of changes to be considered.
The life style issues relate especially to diet, exercise, weight management, mental health, drug and alcohol and smoking issues.
I will mention a few of the vaccination changes.
The changes to the cervical screening program were announced last year. They include a new test based on testing for the human papilloma virus directly, replacing the previous pap test. This increases the efficiency of the program by 20 percent. lt is available for women from 25 to 74 years including those previously vaccinated for HPV. lt is given two years after the last pap and with normal results every five years thereafter.
Influenza vaccination for children from six months to five years is now available free from April. There was a high incidence of influenza in these age groups last year and the program will reduce this as well as decrease the spread to other groups not vaccinated, including infants under six months.
The shingles vaccination program continues for 70 year-olds with the catch up program for 71-79 year-olds continuing to 2021. Like some other vaccinations, it is not given to people with serious immunological conditions.
Free meningococcal vaccinations are given to adolescents in years 11 and 12 as part of the response to the outbreak of new strains. There are no changes to the childhood program.
Finally, the Q fever vaccination continues in Braidwood with registered vaccination facilities available. A significant increase in the incidence of the disease in this area prompted this.
Finally the usual triple antigen including tetanus is required every 10 years, with need for whooping cough boosters if in contact with new born infants.