The Algorithm Age

The parents of more than 1000 children being tested for sexually transmitted infections after a Melbourne childcare worker was charged with abuse should know their child’s health status within days. Medical experts have also advised that the majority of STIs are treatable with a course of antibiotics. Victoria Police revealed on Tuesday that 26-year-old Point Cook man Joshua Dale Brown was arrested and charged in May with more than 70 offences, including child rape. Brown worked at several childcare centres in Melbourne and one centre in Geelong. His alleged victims were aged between five months and two years. The eight alleged victims were from one centre in Point Cook. What will the children be tested for? The Health Department has been in contact with affected families and is recommending that about 1200 children undergo free testing for infectious diseases following the allegations. A police source, speaking on the condition of an...

Since developing migraine four years ago, Hobart resident Claire Szymanski has had to stop working and regularly misses out on social events. "I'd never previously had migraine, woke up one morning with what I thought was this shocking headache and unfortunately four years on I have not had a day's break from it," Ms Szymanski said. "It's really been very up and down, there's been more hard times than anything." Ms Szymanski is one of an estimated 4.9 million Australians who live with migraine of varying frequency and severity. Another Tasmanian, David Gardiner, has experienced life-changing relief through medication but said living with the disorder had made him more accommodating of others who live with an invisible illness. Ms Szymanski said she was "in and out" of hospital when symptoms increased in intensity. She seeks temporary relief from the severe head pain and dizziness she lives wi...

As my eyes scanned my local library’s notice board, something stopped me dead in my tracks. Among the flyers for gardening and painting clubs, I spied one from the National Autistic Society about the challenges autistic adults face, such as struggling with daily routines, the impact of sensory difficulties in a busy world, and how relationships with others may be hard at times. It resonated with me straight away, even though I wasn’t really sure what autism was. This was the beginning of March 2019 – and this poster is what eventually led to me getting an autism diagnosis just before my 40th birthday. As a child, I was often drawing or reading alone – away from the hustle and bustle of everyone around me. The noise of school was chaotic and just too much, but I learnt to mask my discomfort with it. I didn’t realise I was doing that at the time, but masking is a strategy used by some autistic people – consciously or unconsciously – to appear neurotypical. Finding ...

READ MORE: Autism treatment parents say is reversing children's symptoms A leading psychiatrist has revealed his 'guilt' over America's spiraling autism crisis, after his team's work led to an explosion in cases — and fueled the anti-vaccine movement. In the 1980s, around one in 2,000 children had autism in the US. But by the turn of the century, this had jumped 13-fold to one in 150 children , in large part due to Dr Allen Frances and his team's updated guidelines for diagnosing autism. For the first time, doctors began recognizing Asperger's syndrome — a milder condition where patients develop in the typical way in early life but tend to have difficulty with social cues, empathy and forming relationships — as a form of autism. In 2013, building on his team's work, the definition was loosened yet again to include even milder cases, and autism was re-defined as 'autism spectrum disorder'. The result was, acco...

Her positive spirit and can-do attitude is infectious, but even Carrie Bickmore has her doubts about how much she can take on and achieve in her life. Last week, the mum-of-three had to draw on all the optimism and self-belief she had to make it through the biggest physical and mental challenge of her life – running the Big 5 Marathon in South Africa to raise money for her Beanies 4 Brain Cancer foundation. Sharing her gruelling journey with her followers on Instagram, Carrie , 44, admitted that she “almost quit” at one point, but her teammates helped her through and together they raised an incredible $1.1 million and counting for cancer sufferers. “I did it,” she wrote, noting she didn’t care that she came last in their group. “It’s not about how you get there, it just matters that you get there. Try it. It’s life-changing.” CARRIE BICKMORE’S BIG WIN! No one could argue that it was an emotionally draining few months for Carrie as she fundraised tirelessly for h...