Headlines on health

It's Dementia Action week, and Alyssa Gamaldo-Roddy is a professor in the Department of Psychology and Institute for Engaged Aging at Clemson University in South Carolina in the United States. Her research focuses on identifying adverse and protective factors associated with cognitive functioning, particularly in populations at risk for Alzheimer’s and related dementia. She also discusses how aging has changed from generation to generation as information has become more readily available with the development of technology.

There is no link between mobile phone use and brain and head cancers - that's according to a new Australian-led systematic review - commisioned by the World Health Organization. The researchers say the study provides the strongest evidence to date that radio waves from wireless technologies are not harmful to humans.

Australian scientists have made a world-first breakthrough creating lab engineered blood stem cells that closely resemble those found in the human body. They say the discovery could one day put an end to the search for 'perfectly matched' bone marrow donors that are often needed to treat those with leukaemia serious and blood disorders.

A researcher says most Australians support the use of supervised drug injecting rooms with more than 50 per cent of people in every jurisdiction backing the public health measure. A drug injecting room has operated at Kings Cross in Sydney for the past 23 years and a similar facility at North Richmond in Melbourne has been operating since 2018. But efforts to set up additional centres have been problematic.

Health authorities across Australia are encouraging at risk people to get fully vaccinated for mpox as the number of cases grows. There have been more than 340 cases this year which is more than double the number during the last outbreak in 2022. The outbreak in Australia is less severe than the one causing serious illness and deaths in parts of Africa. Dr Tom Morley is a sexual health doctor at Thorne Harbour Health in Melbourne. He told Greg Dyett being fully vaccinated for mpox is important for those most at risk.