Children and adolescents who are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, who have a disability, who live in inner regional areas and who live in the lowest socioeconomic areas are more likely than other groups to have overweight or obesity, according to a new Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report. Although the proportion of Australian children and adolescents who have overweight or obesity had remained relatively stable since 2007–08 (at 25%), 38% of Indigenous children and adolescents had overweight or obesity in 2018–19, compared with 31% in 2012–13. Access the report at: www.aihw.gov.au/reports/overweight-obesity/overweight-obesity-australian-children-adolescents/contents/summary.
Analysis of 11 years of postmarketing data on the quadrivalent human papillomavirus vaccine (4vHPV) in Australia has affirmed the safety profile of the vaccine, say researchers in their study published in Vaccine. They examined reported adverse events after 4vHPV doses administered between April 2007 and December 2017. During that time, 4551 adverse events were reported from the nine million doses of vaccine administered. Adverse events of special interest, apart from syncope, were rarely reported. Syncope rates were higher in younger adolescents than in older adolescents, highlighting the need for management protocols to prevent syncope-related injury. Read the article at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2020.06.039.