College of Public Health, Medical and Veterinary Sciences

In 1788 the British Empire established a penal colony in Sydney Cove. By virtue of their unique demographic, the earliest occupations consisted predominately of convict or prison guard. Initial health hazards included disease, traumatic injury and punishment. Free settlement gradually developed throughout the early to mid 1800s, thus offering new forms of employment with their associated risks. The discovery of commercial gold deposits in 1851, led to a large increase in mining as the predominately dangerous occupation of the late 19th century. Early mining hazards included windlass accidents and flooding, and this was later enhanced by toxic chemicals such as arsenic and mercury. Industrial development occurred throughout the 1900s in Australia. This period was accompanied by increasing interest in worker's health, which later resulted in some pioneering epidemiological research. Overall, history has shown that significant lessons can be learned from the development of occupati...

We investigated all reported Percutaneous exposure incidents (PEI) among staff from a large Australian hospital in the 3-year period, 2001-2003. There were a total of 373 PEI, of which 38.9% were needlestick injuries, 32.7% were cutaneous exposures and 28.4% sharps-related injuries. Nurses were the most commonly affected staff members, accounting for 63.5% of the total, followed by doctors (18.8%) and other staff (17.7%). Needlestick injuries were responsible for the majority of nurses' PEI (44.7%). Sharps injuries constituted the major category for doctors (44.3%). Most needlestick injuries (67.6%) were caused by hollow-bore needles, while the majority of cutaneous exposures involved blood or serum (55.8%). Most sharps injures were caused by unknown devices (35.9%) or suture needles (34.9%). Overall, our investigation suggests that PEI is a considerable burden for health care workers in Australia. Further research is now required to determine the relationships, if any, between ...

Sustainable and equitable health programmes require a grounded understanding of the context in which they are being implemented. This socio-cultural understanding is pivotal for effective delivery of elimination programmes. Standardised valid methods are needed for gathering authentic socio-cultural insights. The currently recommended protocol for collecting Lymphatic Filariasis (LF) related socio-cultural data, while moving in the right direction, is inadequate. To collect data which provides an understanding of local health beliefs and practices, and communities' understanding of LF, techniques must be developed that are both valid and time efficient. An approach developed in the Pacific provides a basic snapshot of socio-cultural insights which are crucial to the development of relevant and sustainable health education and elimination programmes. The increasing interest in socio-cultural LF research presents a unique opportunity for coupling socio-cultural and bio-medical und...