Australia’s current strategy aimed at containment and mitigation of COVID-19 is working well. Australia is in a much better place than was originally predicted according to early modelling.
On Monday April 20, Hong Kong reported no new cases of COVID-19, one of very few places around the world to have recorded such a great negative at this stage in the pandemic.
As the COVID-19 curve starts to flatten in Australia and New Zealand, people are rightly wondering how we will roll back current lockdown policies. Australia’s federal health minister Greg Hunt says Australia is looking to South Korea, Japan and Singapore to inform our exit strategy. New Zealand is relaxing some measures from next week.
It is the world-wide experience that children appear to be at low risk of experiencing symptomatic COVID-19. Because of the low numbers, there are still a number of unanswered questions with regard to the transmission and expression of the disease in this population. Many studies are currently underway, but Professor Crawford outlines the current understanding about COVID-19 in children:
Throughout the coming months, people living with osteoporosis will require ongoing treatment, and it is critical patients remain fully compliant with their medication and treatment for managing osteoporosis and bone health.
While there is little robust clinical evidence to guide the most appropriate choice and use of PPE in general practice, particularly in relation to COVID-19, knowledge about the nature of this virus can help direct efforts to prevent its spread.
There appears to be a myriad of potential treatments for our current health threat – COVID19. But just how real are these options? And which if any of these are likely to make it into our treatment regimens? A review just published online in JAMA gives us a neat summary of where we are up to in terms of treatment.
As discussed by Prof Bernie Hudson, Director of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases at Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney in his interview with Dr Harry Nespolon on Going Viral
According to a recent analysis of COVID-19 cases among patients aged over 18 years.
Scott Morrison has made clear his view that any attempt to eliminate COVID-19 entirely in Australia would carry too high an economic cost, while Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy says such an aim would require “very aggressive” long-term border control.
Having some evidence-based guidelines on when a COVID-positive patient needs hospitalisation is likely to be welcomed by the GP currently managing these self-isolating patients.
Sudden loss of smell could be a sign of COVID-19, say ENT specialists from around the world, even in the absence of other symptoms. The experts from the UK, the US and Australia are calling for anosmia to be added to the list of possible symptoms to be asked about when screening for potentially having the virus.