Thursday, 7 April 2011

Food for thought

7:16 am | Posted by Amy | Edit Post
So I am an infectious diseases scientist and I have spent the last four days at a Communicable Diseases Conference, listening to our national experts. The swine flu pandemic was discussed in detail so that we can learn and improve from it, we learnt that the massive amounts of Australians that love to visit Bali are bringing back lots of exotic diseases for us to deal with here more than ever and we looked at our vaccine successes and failures.

But there was a clear consensus that we need a national centre for disease control, much like the American Centre for Disease Control. It would provide standardization, central coordination and communication. There would be some clear advantages. However the governement made it pretty clear in it's response that because the majority of it's health funding is required by chronic disease, most caused by the obese population (hypertension, heart attacks, diabetes etc), that the infectious diseases area should just be happy with the status quo.

Very frustrating.

So our population is eating and not exercising itself into chronic disease. What I find frustrating was that even at the conference, highly intelligent health professionals that should know better were overweight and stuffing themselves from the buffet tables at morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea, ignoring the bowls of fruit and fresh sanwiches and diving into the cupcakes, slices and pastry savories. The same people that want the government to spend more on infectious diseases aren't doing anything to lessen their own obese load on the health system, so that spending might be able to change.

Perhaps the battle should start at home, health professionals..

6 comments:

Amy said...

So unfair- not only do those people get a lovely Bali escape, but bring home all the nasties for us who couldn't get over there! (Lol, I'm kidding).

Good post though, you are right about health professionals needing to lead the way.

7 April 2011 at 8:48 am
April @ Composed by April said...

Whilst I agree with you on that there does need to be done something infectious disease control, I think it is also unfair to put the blame purely on over-weight people and purely blame them for eatting cake and junk. Not all people who are over-weight eat junk food 24/7, and it is unfair to suggest that they do.

I do agree that health professionals should lead by example though, as should many other people.

7 April 2011 at 9:21 am
Amy said...

Thanks for your thoughts guys.

I know this is a sensitive topic and we could get into debates about fat not equalling Unhealthy, which is definitely true for some but really the stats overall speak volumes.

April - not really sure where I was saying all obese people eat cake 24/7 etc? I was just expressing my frustration at overweight health professionals that were right in front of me eating and eating whilst complaining that the government didn't need to spend so much on chronic disease, despite having just had the highest government medical officer presenting the data..

7 April 2011 at 11:01 am
Gabrielle said...

I think the more you know about chronic disease the scarier it is! Most of us could do more to improve our overall health and decrease our burden on society, myself included.

I think the government have to spend all this money on chronic disease prevention as we can't afford for health spending to continue the way it is!

8 April 2011 at 10:36 am
Sarah said...

Reminds me of the opposite problem I encountered at a heart disease advisory board I was on when I was pregnant with Harry and STARVING all the time - hand shaking, wobby hungry if I didn't eat every hour or so. I'll never forget being lectured by one of the GPs there that "if you want a natural vaginal birth you'd better stop eating all day long".... made me SO angry as I was SO HUNGRY all day and then some dimwit dr thought he had the right to lecture me on my birth choices .... I guess we can't win!!
I'm with you on the obesity issue though....grrrrrrr...

10 April 2011 at 4:45 pm
April @ Composed by April said...

Amy, sorry, I didn't mean you specifically were saying obease people were eatting cake 24/7, i know you wouldn't say that, but many people do, and don't look beyond the obvious. I don't there is any one reason for most chronic health problems, be it obesity, heart disease or immuno-disease.

11 April 2011 at 7:52 am

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Amy
I am 30 years old, am a microbiologist with a PhD and love looking after my little farm. I compete in dressage and showjumping with my horses. I have a passion for shopping and a weakness for pretty clothes, shoes and handbags. My husband and I have a gorgeous toddler called Elka and a little bub named Bronte. I am a mother who works and has a career - just don't call me a "working mother". I don't do inside hobbies and craft and have only successfully sewn two things in my life that weren't ripped horserugs. The scientist in me makes me a little cynical and I am more likely to tell you about my life and events then give you a pretty polaroid style picture and an inspiring quote. Not for everyone but I have a bad memory and blogging is my way of recording life :)
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