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Health news

  • Police use less lethal weapons

    Revealed: the ‘less lethal’ weapons Australian police don’t want you to know about

    Launchers that shoot ‘bullet-like missiles’, chemical irritants and stinger grenades: experts say these weapons can cause serious injury or even death. But they are deployed by police against crowds with little scrutiny
  • Prof Richard Scolyer looking out of a window at the University of Sydney

    Richard Scolyer, acclaimed melanoma researcher who tried experimental treatment on his own brain cancer – obituary

  • Why diphtheria is spreading in remote Indigenous communities – Full Story podcast

    Podcast20:36
  • Person getting flu vaccine

    Australia’s winter illness season is back – what viruses are prevalent this year and when should you get vaccinated?

  • Pill bottle on a doctor's desk with methadone label

    Doctor’s ‘grossly irresponsible prescribing’ played direct role in two deaths, Tasmanian coroner finds

  • Cars drive along Windsor Road in Kellyville, Sydney, Australia

    NSW motorists who use medicinal cannabis may soon be able to drive without fear of major penalty

  • Yuendumu Health Centre, a low white building with blue panels, sits beside a red dirt road under a clear blue sky

    Diphtheria outbreak: residents of remote NT community say health clinic has no hand sanitiser

Key issues

  • A First Nations elder and receiving a vaccine in Redfern, Sydney

    Australia’s largest recorded diphtheria outbreak is spreading through remote Indigenous communities

  • Prof Zoe Wainer, director general of the Australian Centre for Disease Control

    ‘I jumped at it’: Australia’s new CDC chief on trust, misinformation and never being surprised by a health threat

  • A woman in a wheelchair at her home

    At the algorithm’s mercy: Jean may have to leave her SA home as ‘outrageous’ tool cuts aged care support

  • Wendy Andrews and her daughter Eleanor in the hospital

    Australia’s remarkable success in reducing preterm births: ‘Babies are being born when they should be’

Antiviral

Factchecking popular health and wellness claims so you don't have to
  • Main media for Antiviral column about red light therapy

    double quotation markRed light therapy claims to heal wounds, improve pain and reduce wrinkles. But the evidence for it working is dim

    Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz
    Without strong evidence, or at least one decent trial, we cannot know whether shining red lights on to your skin does anything
  • Donna Lu

    double quotation markSound baths are supposed to help relax and ‘soothe’ your nervous system. But do any of these claims ring true?

    Donna Lu
  • Melissa Davey

    double quotation markA dead person’s fat pumped into your body? Why the ‘zombie filler’ trend has some experts spooked | Antiviral

    Melissa Davey
  • Natasha May

    double quotation markInjectable peptides are touted online as a ‘glow up potion’. Here’s why experts warn against unapproved use

    Natasha May
  • Donna Lu

    double quotation markHoney as a superfood: can it really heal wounds, fight superbugs and provide sweet relief for coughs?

    Donna Lu

The cost of care

Investigating rising specialist doctors’ fees in Australia
  • Animation of an hourglass that has figures of people falling rather than sand

    Specialist doctor fees are forcing Australians into ‘impossible choices’. Advocates say urgent change is needed

    Patients like Mary feel ‘embarrassed’ when they can’t afford to pay for care, as experts lament a ‘system without guardrails’
  • Composite of four Medicare cards. Health department data shows Australian taxpayers subsidise rising specialist fees

    Australian taxpayers subsidise rising specialist fees as spending on Abbott-era Medicare safety net ‘explodes’

  • Young woman suffering and in pain.

    I just paid $870 in medical bills (after Medicare) in six weeks. My faith in Australia’s public health is crushed

  • A video loop of a Medicare card that changes into a credit card

    Struggling to afford specialist doctors’ fees? See if your GP can refer you to one of Australia’s free public hospital clinics

  • A specialist otolaryngologist examining a patient

    double quotation markSpecialist doctor fees are far too high. Australia’s next national health funding deal is a chance to change that

    Peter Breadon

Opinion

  • Ranjana Srivastava

    double quotation markDoctors don’t know what to do about wellness influencers but we dismiss them at our peril

    Ranjana Srivastava
  • An empty wheelchair illuminated by a spotlight against a dark background

    Six-year-old Sienna’s parents have fought the NDIS every year of her life for funding that keeps her alive

  • A computer illustration of Corynebacterium diphtheriae, the bacteria that cause diphtheria

    double quotation markDiphtheria is a disease of poverty that has no place in modern Australia. When we talk about Closing the Gap, this is the gap

    Donna Ah Chee
  • Roland Bull in his scrubs

    A job that changed me: As an anxious first-time surgical assistant, the casual workplace dynamics surprised me

  • Barkindji custodian David Doyle and Barkindji elder Barb Quayle were involved in the excavation of the dingo burial site

    Signs of ‘feeding’ ritual at dingo burial site shed new light on bond between First Nations people and canines

    Never documented archaeologically before, evidence points to First Nations people caring for and nursing the animal
  • A brown house cricket perches on weathered wood against a black background.

    Don’t reach for the bug spray: scientists find insects may feel pain after crickets nurse sore antennae

  • A towel dispenser in a public washroom appears to be smiling.

    They’re in clouds, electric sockets and even on toast. Why do humans see faces in everyday objects?

  • Sperm

    Sperm get lost in space, Australian research into microgravity impacts suggests

  • CSIRO scientists in the lab working on the prototype quantum batteries

    Is this the world’s first quantum battery? Australian scientists say so

  • Blood full moon

    Rare ‘blood moon’ total lunar eclipse to loom over North America, Australia and New Zealand

  • Silhouettes of four people with telescopes against orange backdrop of sky at sunset

    Six planets due to parade across night sky in rare celestial spectacle

Multimedia

  • Guardian Australia’s Matilda Boseley breaks down the symptoms and common misconceptions about PCOS, newly named PMOS

    PCOS is now PMOS: common misconceptions about the condition explained – video

    Video6:45
  • 'These cuts are immoral,' Jordon Steele-John tells the Senate. 'This is not what you were elected to do'

    Greens senator says ‘immoral’ NDIS reforms are being rushed through Senate – video

    Video3:13
  • Guardian Australia's Matilda Boseley explains the winners, losers and surprises in this year's federal budget

    Budget 2026: Labor’s ambitious and politically risky changes, explained by Matilda Boseley – video

    Video3:46
  • Three of the Australians are New South Wales residents, and two are from Queensland

    Australians returning from hantavirus-affected cruise to be quarantined for three weeks – video

    Live

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