Covenanting Covenanter's News A Silent Killer that is happening now!
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And where Aboriginal health is concerned you would think every effort would be made to address any serious health issue. An internet search on the parasite indicated that it is also present in Central Australia. The article also reports Professor Rick Speare from James Cook University saying the lack of action on strongyloides amounts to institutional racism. Katrina Bolton, an ABC journalist, reports that Doctors are alarmed about a "silent killer" infecting people in Australia's north amid claims authorities are failing to take the threat seriously. Strongyloides is a parasite that crawls in through intact skin and breeds in the body indefinitely. The available evidence suggests more than a third of people in some remote Northern Territory communities have it. It makes people sick, and if they are given the wrong drugs it can be fatal. The Immigration Department says it tests refugees and humanitarian migrants before and after they come to Australia, and if they test positive, they are treated. But the current manual the Northern Territory Health Department gives doctors says to treat people with the parasite once they show symptoms. It is advice that goes against instructions given in the medical textbook Harrison's, which says "even in the asymptomatic state" it must be treated because of the potential for fatal "hyperinfection". The territory's guidelines are in the process of being changed, but Professor Rick Speare from James Cook University feels the lack of action on strongyloides amounts to institutional racism. "I think that would be quite hard to defend against to say there hasn't been," he said. "The evidence is there." Read the rest of this article and see video conversation with Djiniyini and others at: ARDS Executive News on Strongyloides Follow up Reading To voice your concern write to the federal government for funding to address this health issue Nicola Roxon MP or email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
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The Rev Dr Djiniyini Gondarra, also a Uniting Church and Congress minister, has been reported by ABC News, Saturday, October 10, as seriously questioning the behaviour of the Northern Territory Health Department on its response to strongyloides, a parasite believed to infect more than a third of people in the NT. He said, "This is another disease, a silent killer that is happening now".
