Understanding Breast Cancer Images in Art History as a Form of Health Communication.

Can art and visual images meant for public consumption (museums, galleries, social media platforms) serve as a critical form of health communication for breast cancer patients? For their clinicians? For the population at large? Art history research methods are applied to a range of breast cancer images in western art in order to understand what the images communicate to us about patient experience, agency, and inequity in health care at the time of their construction. The following is a selective look at western art as it reflects and informs our understanding of breast cancer over time.

What's in the Shadows? Formal Analysis: Art History Method to Improve Interpretation Skills for Mammography and Chest Radiographs in Resident Education.

Rationale And Objectives: To assess the feasibility of using an art history tool of formal analysis in resident education for interpretations of mammography and chest radiographs METHODS: In a pre-post study design, residents were shown pre-selected 10 mammograms and 10 chest radiographs for a total of 20 unique anonymized patient cases. After the pretest, residents attended four formal analysis art history lessons. The formal elements included line, light, dark, shade, proportion and balance.

Developing a climate change inequality health impact assessment for health services.

Objectives: To develop a Climate Change Inequality Health Impact Assessment (CCIHIA) framework for health services; to provide a systematic process for assessing potential unequal health impacts of climate change on vulnerable and marginalised populations and places; to support effective planning to address these impacts; and to develop contextually appropriate local strategies. Type of program: A collaborative interdisciplinary scoping research project involving two universities and two local health districts (LHDs) in New South Wales (NSW) to develop a CCIHIA framework. This work builds upon the health impact assessment (HIA) approach, which systematically assesses proposals' potential health and equity impacts by involving stakeholders in developing responses.

Heat illness presentations to emergency departments in Western Sydney: surveillance for environmental, personal and behavioural risk factors.

Objective: To pilot surveillance to describe environmental, personal and behavioural risk factors for people presenting to hospital emergency departments (EDs) with heat illness.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective case series and telephone interview study of people presenting to EDs across South Western Sydney, Western Sydney and Nepean Blue Mountains Local Health Districts with heat illness over the 2017/18 and 2018/19 summer periods (1 December to 28 February). We used the Public Health Rapid Emergency Disease Syndromic Surveillance (PHREDSS) 'heat problems' syndrome to identify people with heat illness and medical records to find contact details.

Epidemiology and associated risk factors of giardiasis in a peri-urban setting in New South Wales Australia.

Giardiasis is one of the most important non-viral causes of human diarrhoea. Yet, little is known about the epidemiology of giardiasis in the context of developed countries such as Australia and there is a limited information about local sources of exposure to inform prevention strategies in New South Wales. This study aimed to (1) describe the epidemiology of giardiasis and (2) identify potential modifiable risk factors associated with giardiasis that are unique to south-western Sydney, Australia.

Measles control in Australia - threats, opportunities and future needs.

Control of measles was the focus of a national workshop held in 2015 in Sydney, Australia, bringing together stakeholders in disease control and immunisation to discuss maintaining Australia's measles elimination status in the context of regional and global measles control. The global epidemiology of measles was reviewed, including outbreaks in countries that have achieved elimination, such as the Disneyland outbreak in the United States and large outbreaks in Sydney, Australia. Transmission of measles between Australia and New Zealand occurs, but has not been a focus of control measures.

Effectiveness of maternal pertussis vaccination in preventing infection and disease in infants: The NSW Public Health Network case-control study.

Background: Infants are at the highest risk of severe complications - including death - as a result of pertussis infection. Controlling pertussis in this group has been challenging, particularly in those too young to be vaccinated. Following revised national recommendations in March 2015, the state of New South Wales, Australia, introduced a funded maternal vaccination campaign at 28 - 32 weeks of gestation using a 3-component tetanus-diphtheria-acellular pertussis vaccine (dTpa; Boostrix, GSK).

A Typhimurium outbreak linked to Vietnamese bread rolls in South Western Sydney, Australia, 2015.

Introduction: In September 2015, the South Western Sydney (SWS) Public Health Unit was notified of a cluster of Typhimurium (STm) cases with a common multiple-locus variable-number tandem repeats analysis (MLVA) pattern. An investigation was conducted to identify a source and contain the outbreak.

Methods: The cluster was initially identified through routine geographic information system cluster scanning applied to the New South Wales Notifiable Conditions Management System.

A Q fever cluster among workers at an abattoir in south-western Sydney, Australia, 2015.

Background: In September 2015, the Public Health Unit of the South Western Sydney Local Health District was notified of two possible Q fever cases. Case investigation identified that both cases were employed at an abattoir, and both cases advised that co-workers had experienced similar symptoms. Public Health Unit staff also recalled interviewing in late 2014 at least one other Q fever case who worked at the same abattoir.

The changing epidemiology of measles in an era of elimination: lessons from health-care-setting transmissions of measles during an outbreak in New South Wales, Australia, 2012.

Introduction: In countries where measles is rare, health-care-setting transmissions remain problematic. Australia experienced its largest measles outbreak in 15 years in 2012 with 199 cases reported nationally; 170 cases occurred in the state of New South Wales (NSW) with symptom onset between 7 April and 29 November 2012.

Methods: A descriptive study was conducted using measles case data obtained from metropolitan Sydney local health districts in NSW in 2012.

Effect of antiviral prophylaxis on influenza outbreaks in aged care facilities in three local health districts in New South Wales, Australia, 2014.

Background: There was a record number ( = 111) of influenza outbreaks in aged care facilities in New South Wales, Australia during 2014. To determine the impact of antiviral prophylaxis recommendations in practice, influenza outbreak data were compared for facilities in which antiviral prophylaxis and treatment were recommended and for those in which antivirals were recommended for treatment only.

Methods: Routinely collected outbreak data were extracted from the Notifiable Conditions Information Management System for two Local Health Districts where antiviral prophylaxis was routinely recommended and one Local Health District where antivirals were recommended for treatment but not routinely for prophylaxis.

Investigating an outbreak of staphylococcal food poisoning among travellers across two Australian states.

Introduction: Staphylococcus aureus is a common cause of staphylococcal food poisoning in Australia with several outbreaks associated with foods prepared by commercial caterers. Laboratory testing on cases of gastrointestinal illness caused by enterotoxin-producing S. aureus is not routinely done as this condition is self-limiting.

Sustained outbreak of measles in New South Wales, 2012: risks for measles elimination in Australia.

Objective: On 7 April 2012, a recently returned traveller from Thailand to Australia was confirmed to have measles. An outbreak of measles subsequently occurred in the state of New South Wales, prompting a sustained and coordinated response by public health authorities. The last confirmed case presented on 29 November 2012.

Influenza vaccination during pregnancy: a qualitative study of the knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and practices of general practitioners in Central and South-Western Sydney.

Background: Pregnant women have an increased risk of influenza complications. Influenza vaccination during pregnancy is safe and effective, however coverage in Australia is less than 40%. Pregnant women who receive a recommendation for influenza vaccination from a health care provider are more likely to receive it, however the perspectives of Australian general practitioners has not previously been reported.

Influenza vaccination during pregnancy: coverage rates and influencing factors in two urban districts in Sydney.

Background: Pregnant women have an increased risk of complications from influenza. Influenza vaccination during pregnancy is considered effective and safe; however estimates of vaccine coverage are low. This study aimed to determine influenza vaccination coverage and factors associated with vaccine uptake in pregnant women in two Sydney-based health districts.

Measles transmission in health care waiting rooms: implications for public health response.

Background: Seventeen cases of locally acquired measles occurred in South Western Sydney and Sydney local health districts between July and October 2011. Three of the cases were known to have at least one dose of measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine. Seven cases were infected within a health care setting waiting room by five index cases.

Nosocomial pulmonary tuberculosis contact investigation in a neonatal intensive care unit.

The diagnosis of smear-positive pulmonary tuberculosis in a medical officer working in a metropolitan Australian neonatal intensive care unit led to a contact investigation involving 125 neonates, 165 relatives, and 122 healthcare workers with varying degrees of exposure. There was no evidence of nosocomial tuberculosis transmission from the index case.

Men who have sex with men, infectious syphilis and HIV coinfection in inner Sydney: results of enhanced surveillance.

Unlabelled: Background The resurgence of infectious syphilis in men who have sex with men (MSM) has been documented worldwide; however, HIV coinfection and syphilis reinfections in MSM in inner Sydney have not been published.

Methods: For all laboratory syphilis notifications assessed as a newly notified case or reinfection, a questionnaire was sent to the requesting physician seeking demographic data and disease classification. Sex of partner and HIV status were collected for all infectious syphilis notifications in men received from 1 April 2006 to March 2011.

Influenza virus A (H10N7) in chickens and poultry abattoir workers, Australia.

In March 2010, an outbreak of low pathogenicity avian influenza A (H10N7) occurred on a chicken farm in Australia. After processing clinically normal birds from the farm, 7 abattoir workers reported conjunctivitis and minor upper respiratory tract symptoms. Influenza virus A subtype H10 infection was detected in 2 workers.

A large point-source outbreak of Salmonella Typhimurium linked to chicken, pork and salad rolls from a Vietnamese bakery in Sydney.

Introduction: In January 2011, Sydney South West Public Health Unit was notified of a large number of people presenting with gastroenteritis over two days at a local hospital emergency department (ED).

Methods: Case-finding was conducted through hospital EDs and general practitioners, which resulted in the notification of 154 possible cases, from which 83 outbreak cases were identified. Fifty-eight cases were interviewed about demographics, symptom profile and food histories.

An outbreak of Salmonella Infantis gastroenteritis in a residential aged care facility associated with thickened fluids.

Twenty-two confirmed cases of Salmonella Infantis were identified in 70 residents of high-level care areas of a residential aged care facility in Sydney in April 2010 during an outbreak of gastroenteritis. A retrospective cohort study was conducted to identify a possible cause. Consuming a soft diet, puréed diet, or thickened fluid were each independently associated with illness.