campusreview. com. au news
Lunchbox checks called hollow gesture
Academic says the practice is driven by paranoia and has little nutritional value.
A
Queensland academic has slammed the inspection of students’ lunchboxes as a“ perverse” infringement of parental rights unlikely to result in any improvement to child health.
Associate professor Michael Gard, of the University of Queensland’ s School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences, said the practice was fuelled by hysteria relating to child obesity and was seemingly trumping“ all other concerns in the current climate”.
“ Despite well-known data that Australian rates of childhood obesity have changed very little over the last 15 to 20 years, this is an issue that still tends to be discussed in breathlessly apocalyptic terms. Yes, too many children are overweight, but the hysteria we have created is out of proportion to the problem.”
Gard said that as a result of well-meaning but short-sighted thinking, lunchbox inspections had become a normal and accepted practice despite little evidence to suggest it could bring about healthier outcomes for children.
He likened“ lunchbox blitzes” to the largely unsuccessful US campaign against drugs in schools – DARE – which he argued had similarly been driven by groundless social paranoia and was more symbolic than effective.
“ Without any evidence that [ lunchbox blitzes ] improve health, their real impact is to shame kids at school and embarrass or outrage parents at home,” Gard said.“ Perhaps the most dispiriting aspect of the lunchbox inspection is that it seems to rest on the assumption that the teacher knows more about what children need and how they should be parented than parents themselves.”
Gard’ s comments follow recent research from Foodbank Australia that highlighted the need for a greater focus on child nutrition.
A survey of 532 primary and secondary school teachers nationwide found that more than two-thirds of respondents were seeing children arriving at school hungry. More than a quarter of respondents said the problem was worsening.
The teachers surveyed stated that about 73 per cent of students who missed out on breakfast often found it difficult to concentrate, whilst two-thirds became lethargic and more than half experienced learning difficulties or exhibited behavioural problems. n
One-stop flu jab
Researchers say a universal vaccine that lasts for life may be possible.
A
University of Melbourne research team has discovered a breakthrough that could lead to the development of a single flu shot that lasts for life.
The research team discovered that CD8 + T cells, used by the body to counter new viruses, retain memories of viruses they have previously encountered.
The project was conducted in collaboration with Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center and China’ s Fudan University and began as a response to the avian influenza outbreak, from virus H7N9, in China in 2013. That outbreak resulted in 99 per cent of people infected being hospitalised, with a 30 per cent mortality rate.
“ We’ d never seen anything like H7N9,” said University of Melbourne associate professor Katherine Kedzierska.“ The virus was infecting more people rapidly and nobody had immunity. After collecting samples from infected patients, we found that people who couldn’ t make these T-cell flu assassins were dying. These findings led to the potential of moving from vaccines for specific influenza strains towards developing a protection based on T-cells.“ From the 30 per cent mortality rate in China, we knew the clock was ticking. Had the contagion spread broken out globally, we’ re talking about a history-altering event on the Spanish Flu scale. Our extraordinary breakthrough could lead to the development of a vaccine component that can protect against all new influenza viruses, with the potential for development of a one-off universal flu vaccine shot.”
This discovery could prevent future flu pandemics that have the potential to kill millions and even help clinicians gain an insight into how their patients are responding to virus treatment. The work will also help clinicians make early predictions about how well a patient’ s immune system will respond to viruses, so they can manage early interventions such as artificial ventilation more effectively, particularly in cases where the patient is at risk of dying, Kedzierska said. n
9