Paradise delayed: longer life but worsening health

Perhaps if such infections killed Australians rather than simply made them ill we might have had specific cures decades ago. Many childhood infections also continue to plague us. Pertussis, for example, which should have disappeared years ago continues to produce between 12,000 and 24,000 cases a year. Other childhood infections also continue to play a part in our everyday life.

So what does all this mean for our health? We are certainly living longer and death rates continue to fall but when it comes to health we could do a lot better.

Chronic disease remains a major stumbling block and we need to address our life style, the hazards of everyday life and work, our physical and mental inactivity, our often poor nutrition and sometimes sloppy food storage and preparation, our overuse of medical drugs and procedures, as well as smoking and the use of alcohol.

The fact that a very large proportion of all Australians are overweight or obese is also highly disturbing. We also need to acknowledge the significance of infectious disease in our lives, particularly childhood infections, food-based infections and sexually transmitted infections. Finally, we should not simply shrug off the threat of mosquito-borne infections as something acquired in the developing world and of little importance in Australia.