Friday, 30 November 2012. These are some of the 40 Queensland Health staff gathered in Cairns to farewell each other. This photo alone represents, collectively, about 150 years of experience with Queensland Health. These are educated and experienced health professionals, experts in environmental health, health promotion, nutrition, health communication, disaster management and business management. One has retained her job and one has been re-employed part-time.
All of us were employed by the Tropical Public Health Unit, a network with offices in
Cairns, Townsville, Mackay and Mount Isa, employing 141 people working collaboratively to protect and improve the health of North Queenslanders. Sixty-five of these 141 North Queensland health staff lost their jobs last year when the network was dismantled, with the disciplines of health promotion and nutrition completely abolished in regional Queensland. The four provincial cities of North Queensland now have four separate public health units attached to local hospital and health services.
The Tropical Public Health Unit was established in
1995 to protect the health of North Queenslanders from environmental health and
communicable disease threats. Staff also worked on preventing chronic illnesses
caused by risk factors such as obesity, smoking, poor nutrition, physical
inactivity and poor sexual health.
Since its establishment, staff of the unit have identified and
controlled some of the most important emerging and re-emerging diseases in
Australia, including Hendra Virus (which
has killed four people), Japanese encephalitis (which has killed two people),
Australian Bat Lyssavirus (which has now killed three people) and dengue fever (which has also killed
three people).
Nutrition and Health Promotion staff have also been
leaders in finding innovative ways to address the escalating rates of obesity
and chronic diseases such as diabetes in North Queensland.
The unit was instrumental in preventing dengue
fever from becoming endemic (permanently here) in North Queensland. Between
1990 and 2012, the unit responded to 44 separate outbreaks of dengue fever
in North Queensland, which affected about 4013 people.
The unit played a major role in coordinating the
health response to pandemic influenza, which affected at least 2800 North
Queenslanders in 2009. Staff undertook border control, contact tracing, health
promotion and coordinated a mass vaccination program.
The protective
and preventative health jobs which were undertaken by staff of the unit, but which no longer exist in North Queensland, include:
- health promotion programs for dengue fever, childhood vaccine-preventable diseases, blood lead levels in Mount Isa, diabetes, physical activity for school children, skin cancer prevention, public health emergencies (such as pandemic influenza or post-cyclone health risks)
- nutrition programs such as healthy eating for school children, better food supply in Indigenous communities
- sexual health promotion and STI control programs in Indigenous communities in Cape York and the Torres Strait.
Fortunately, the remaining staff of the public health units continue to provide invaluable services in communicable disease control and environmental health.
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