SMC Heads-Up: adolescent health stats, Wozniak, superbugs

Friday, 27 April 2012, 5:26 pm
Column: Science Media Centre

SMC Heads-Up: Our poor adolescent health stats, Apple's Steve Wozniak, superbugs

Issue 179 - April 27 - May 3

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Spotlight on NZ's adolescent deaths
New Zealand's high rate of youth mortality and suicide have been highlighted in a special 'adolescent health' issue of an international medical journal.

The Lancet has published a four part Series on Adolescent Health to coincide with the 45th Session of the United Nations Commission on Population Development in New York, which has an adolescent health theme.

An analysis of international of youth health indicators in the special issue ranked New Zealand very poorly in comparison to other developed countries. In terms of adolescents (defined as 10-24 years by the Lancet) dying from any cause, New Zealand ranked 2nd highest out of 27 developed countries, after the US. New Zealand also ranked 3rd highest in terms of females suicide rates and was ranked highest out of all 27 countries for male suicides.

This is not the first time New Zealand's poor track record on youth mortality has been highlighted. Previous reports have also slammed New Zealand's suicide rates and this week Associate Health Minister Hon Peter Dunne acknowledged that while New Zealand's suicide rate was improving, it is still one of the worst in the OECD.

Prof Annette Beautrais, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, University of Auckland, told the SMC:

"While it is possible that New Zealand's high ranking may reflect better accounting and reporting of deaths, enabled by a small population and a coronial inquest system for traffic and suspected suicide deaths, other countries have similar coronially-based mortality reporting systems (e.g. Australia, Canada, United Kingdom) and do not have youth mortality rates as high as those in New Zealand

"A more likely explanation for New Zealand's mortality may lie with New Zealand's relatively low minimum legal drinking age of 18 years, which is likely to contribute to both suicide and traffic deaths."

You can read more commentary and a round up of media coverage on the SMC website.
On the science radar...

Southpaws skewed in sports, vibrating steering wheels, flip-flopping fliers, the fractal-flight of the albatross and post-traumatic Tetris therapy.
Podcast: The Woz is in the house!
The revamped and relaunched Sciblogs podcasts is out now with episode 26 featuring Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.

Wozniak, who helped kickstart the personal computer revolution with the launch of the Apple I in 1975, is heading to New Zealand next month for Woz Live - a seminar in which he will relate the Apple story and what we can learn from it.

Also on the podcast, British futurist Mark Stevenson, who was in the country recently visiting start-up incubators. He is an optimist who believes in the power of human ingenuity to get us out of the hole we've dug for ourselves as we face up to the consequences of exploiting our planet.

Professor Shaun Hendy is interviewed about the late Sir Paul Callaghan and reflects on what made him such an effective scientist, but also an influential visionary.

Subscribe to the Sciblogs podcast via iTunes or stream it from the Sciblogs website - each Friday we'll serve up interviews, news and a round-up of the research papers that made headlines during the week.

Twitter: @Sciblogsnz
Facebook: www.facebook.com/sciblogs

Clinicians warned over 'super bugs'
Researchers providing an in-depth analysis of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, isolated from New Zealand patients returning from India, have taken the opportunity to warn hospitals to be on the lookout for 'superbugs'.

A new article published in the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents details New Zealand's first incidence of NMD positive bacteria, isolated from patients in 2009-10.

NDM stands for New Delhi metallo--lactamase, an enzyme which experts say can make bacteria "essentially resistant to most known antibiotics".

Author Dr Deborah Williamson (University of Auckland) and her colleagues analysed five cultures of NMD producing bacteria from four patients - all of whom had been traveling in India and had received medical treatments there.

The gene which confers bacteria the ability to produce the NDM enzyme can be passed between strains of bacteria via a DNA swapping process called horizontal transfer. Several different bacteria species carrying variants of the NDM gene were identified in the study, including: E. coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Proteus mirabilis.

All bacterial strains carrying a version of the NDM gene were founded be resistant to 75-80% of antibiotics tested. The researchers also examined bacteria DNA to identify genes that might be carried alongside the NDM gene.

In the article's conclusions, the authors warn of more NDM-positive bacterial infections in the future:

"Given the reported propensity of this resistance mechanism to disseminate, it seems inevitable that further isolation of NDM-producing organisms will continue to occur in our geographic locale.

"It is therefore imperative that clinicians and laboratories remain vigilant both in detecting these organisms and in instituting appropriate infection control measures to prevent further the epidemic spread of NDM-producing Enterobacteriaceae."

Quoted: Sunday Star-Times
"Seventy-one per cent of our merchandisable exports come from the primary sector.

"To have just 10 PhDs in that area ...is not going to be sufficient to produce the value-adding activity we need".

--
--Science NZ chief executive Anthony Scott notes that only 10 of the nation's 440 PhDs awarded in 2010 were in agriculture or environmental science

New from the SMC

Experts Respond:
DNA damage: British researchers who found that children who experience violence appear to be aging at a faster rate plan to replicate their research in a New Zealand context.

Suicide stats: Experts comment on international comparisons which show NZ ranking poorly in terms of suicide and mortality.

In the News:

Video game therapy: Adolescents suffering from depression can benefit just as much from specialised computer therapy as they do from one-to-one therapy with a clinician, according to New Zealand researchers.

Research 'filling the gaps' on 1080: A recent University of Otago study into the effects of a 1080 poison operation challenges claims about the negative impacts on native wildlife
Reflections:

Marine reserves require diplomacy: Gareth Morgan and Geoff Simmonds write in the NZ Herald about the need for compromise in setting Antarctic Marin Protected Areas.

Sciblogs highlights

Some of the highlights from this week's posts:

Dear David, please give us more than science and innovation platitudes - Peter Kerr drags Labour leader David Shearer over the coals for an unoriginal speech on science.
sticK

Kiwimars Science: Welcome to Mars - Take trip to the red planet with Elf Eldridge and Jared Lee.
Just So Science

Jesus heals - but not cancer! Cures, cancer and Christ - Ken Perrott wades into the church billbord debate over faith and science.
Open Parachute

Convection and continuity - Marcus Wilson explores the physics of a very hot topic - heat pumps.
Physics Stop

Research highlights

Please note: hyperlinks point, where possible, to the relevant abstract or paper.

Toddlers - they're a sure bet: Children who will turn into adult compulsive gamblers can be identified as young as the age of three years, according to researchers using Dunedin's well-known longitudinal study. Kids rated at age three as being more restless, inattentive, oppositional, and moody than other children that age are twice as likely to grow up to have problems with gambling as adults three decades later
Psychological Science

Poverty-trap in childhood?: Contrary to popular belief, NZ children brought up in poverty are not predisposed to crime or mental health problems in adulthood, Christchurch researchers say. However, teens and adults who were poor in childhood do have increased levels of poor school results, lower earnings and more reliance on the dole and other welfare payments up to the age of thirty.
Social Science and Medicine

Warmer water thins ice shelves: New research on thinning ice shelves in Antarctica shows warm ocean currents are the dominant cause of recent ice loss, at rates of up to 7m thickness annually. Of the 54 ice shelves mapped, 20 -- mostly in West Antarctica -- are being melted by warmer seas, though warm winds also affect those on the Antarctic Peninsula. Inland glaciers feeding the shelves with faster melt rates are accelerating and the process is helping lift sea levels.
Nature

Some organic crops can compete: Under certain conditions -- such as perennials grown on favourable soils -- organic farming systems can nearly match conventional yields, new research shows. The difference in performance may be as low as 5 per cent, an important point when a variety of farming techniques may be needed to meet rising demands for affordable food while reducing environmental costs.
Nature

Time on target: Super-accurate clocks used to set NZ's time may one day be able to be synchronised more precisely with counterparts across the Tasman, or even further afield, says an Australian scientist in a perspective on new German research. Such synchronisation over fibre-optic links will be needed for very long baseline interferometry in radio telescopes such as the proposed trans-Tasman Square Kilometre Array.
Science

Vitamin D a double-edged sword: Vitamin D regulates the level of calcium in the blood stream and determines how much should be stored in the skeleton, but several recent clinical trials in old people now show it can also promote bone density loss. These findings may explain clinical trials where vitamin D supplements not only failed to prevent fractures in elderly patients but were sometimes linked to increased fracture rates.
Journal of Clinical Investigation

Wear-and-tear on DNA of abused kids: Researchers using data from a British cohort study (running in parallel with the Dunedin cohort study) have found that sufferers of child abuse exhibit damage to their chromosomal DNA usually seen as a sign of aging. This damage could lead to health problems in later life.
Molecular Psychiatry

Policy updates

Some of the policy highlights from this week:

Latest suicide stats: The Ministry of Health has released a report on NZ latest suicide data titled, Suicide Facts: Deaths and intentional self-harm hospitalisations 2009. While the suicide rate has decreased it is still high by international standards for developed countries.

Upcoming sci-tech events

• Identity Conference 2012: Managing digital identity in a networked world - April 30-May 1, Wellington.
• The Ocean Governance Report Launch - From the Emerging Issues Programme, overseen by the Institute of Policy Studies - April 30, Wellington..
• Taking Antarctica's pulse: research in Our Far South - Public seminar by Dr Gareth Morgan, Dr Rob McKay, Dr Rhian Salmon & Prof Tim Naish - May 2, Wellington.
• Market-led Tech-transfer - KiwiNet commercialisation forum - May 2, Wellington.
• Science Express: Rena - The Oil Spill - Public talk from Prof Chris Battershill - May 3, Wellington.

For these and more upcoming events, and more details about them, visit the SMC's Events Calendar.

ENDS

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