Measuring vision using innate behaviours in mice with intact and impaired retina function.

Measuring vision in rodents is a critical step for understanding vision, improving models of human disease, and developing therapies. Established behavioural tests for perceptual vision, such as the visual water task, rely on learning. The learning process, while effective for sighted animals, can be laborious and stressful in animals with impaired vision, requiring long periods of training.

Changing mortality patterns in Kimberley Aborigines.

Background/aims: To examine the causes of officially reported deaths from several categories among Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in a statistical division of north-west Australia from 2002 to 2011.

Methods: A cross-sectional analysis of official Death Registration data to calculate mortality rate ratios (Aboriginal against non-Aboriginal) for that decade in six major International Classification of Disease (ICD)-10 categories. The study setting was the West Kimberley Health District in the far north of Western Australia.

Why closing the Aboriginal health gap is so elusive.

A wide gap persists between the health of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians despite a recent Federal government commitment to close the gap by 2030. The complex underlying factors include socioeconomic and environmental disadvantage, inadequate education, underemployment, racial prejudice, high-risk health-related behaviours and limited access to clinical services and health promotion programmes. Over recent decades some aspects of Aboriginal health have deteriorated badly, largely from a surge in chronic 'lifestyle' diseases like diabetes, cardiovascular and kidney disorders plus the effects of tobacco smoking, alcohol and drug abuse and high rates of violence and trauma.

Population dynamics of methicillin-susceptible and -resistant Staphylococcus aureus in remote communities.

Objectives: Community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) was first reported in remote regions of Western Australia (WA) in 1992 and is now the predominant MRSA isolated in the State. To gain insights into the emergence of CA-MRSA, 2146 people living in 11 remote WA communities were screened for colonization with S. aureus.