Australian politicians must act quickly to combat the rise of obesity and its life-threatening disease consequences, and the great threats to health from global climate change, according to a letter published in the Medical Journal of Australia. The letter has been endorsed by 300 medical and health practitioners, including 40 professors of medicine and health sciences...

Scientists in Australia found that when they studied insulin resistance in people with Hepatitis C little or none of it was in the liver and nearly all the insulin resistance occured in muscle, which surprised them because Hepatitis C is a liver disease that not only leads to cirrhosis and cancer, but also makes people three to four times more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes...

A cluster of new studies examining intensive care unit (ICU) cases of 2009 Influenza A(H1N1) swine flu in the initial outbreak of the disease in Mexico, Canada, and then later in Australia and New Zealand, has once again pointed to the unusual propensity for the most severely affected patients to be relatively healthy adolescents and young adults.

The first of two reviews in this week's edition of The Lancet discusses the standards of health and lifestyles of Indigenous people. It is the work of Professor Michael Gracey, of the Unity of First People of Australia, Perth, WA, Australia, and Professor Malcolm King, of the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.

Cycling injuries are on the rise, according to a research report in the current edition of the Medical Journal of Australia. But, because there is no accurate data on the number of people who cycle, it is unclear whether it is actually becoming more dangerous, or more people are participating.

Australian biosecurity experts have warned that Australia is surrounded to its north by a 'ring of fire' where new human and animal plagues could appear with very little warning and with potentially dire consequences.