Priya Alexander

Rude.

Yeah.

Also coming up on the show, urgent care clinics.

The federal government has just announced a whole $1.8 billion is going to be invested, but is there evidence to actually show that they are effective?

The first thing in the news is good news because Australia has become the 30th country in the world to eliminate trachoma as a public health problem.

Oh, okay.

And this is big because trachoma is the leading infectious cause of blindness.

So if people aren't aware of this, this is when you get infection with chlamydia, the bacteria chlamydia.

You can get recurrent infections that impact the eye.

And over time, it can actually lead to scarring.

It can lead to the eyelashes growing quite differently.

They can actually grow inward and then scratch the eyeball and cause scarring.

Wow.

So this has been a significant problem in Australia and particularly impacted First Nations communities.

But the World Health Organisation has just said that we have eliminated trachoma as a public health issue, which is really a success of an integrated public health response.

This has been led by First Nations communities, by Aboriginal controlled health services, federal and state governments.

And this is really what public health success looks like if everybody works together.

So it's about reducing the risk of infection.

So this can be spread from close contact with individuals, but also fly's bell that can take discharge or liquid from the eye or nasal discharge, and then they can actually spread the infection as well.

So part of this has been improving hygiene.