As Sydney comes up for air after enduring its first heatwave of 2017, the true extent of the negative health effects caused by soaring temperatures won't be known for some time, health experts say.

Health authorities have warned Sydneysiders to be on alert as the baking sun sends temperatures and ozone levels soaring and triggers a total fire ban.

Doctors and nurses often don't accurately know the risks and benefits of common surgical procedures, tests and drugs, potentially adding to costly medical overuse: study

The visible band of ground-level ozone triggered on sunny, still days in areas of high air pollution will have Sydneysiders with asthma and other respiratory conditions on high alert.

The indirect economic cost of rising numbers of ageing Australians with diabetes, measured in 'lost productive life years', is set to hit $2.9 billion a year by 2030, up from $2.1 billion in 2015.

Calls for the ACT to return to leading the national debate on safe needle exchange programs in prisons have been reignited.

2016 was a bad year for food poisoning and mosquitoes, and global warming may be to blame.

Tens of thousands of elderly, mentally ill Australians are being denied effective public health system treatments because they live in nursing homes.

Charley was born at a time that the medical consensus on peanut allergy was to delay introducing the food in infants deemed to be at high risk.

A father and son's lego project became a mission to raise awareness about sun safety.

Is one day off too much to ask?

The Turnbull Government has rejected a call from the Australian Medical Association to create a nation-wide Centre for Disease Control, to help prepare for and respond to outbreaks of infectious diseases.

Children who obtain alcohol from people other than their parents are three times more likely to binge drink by 15 or 16, compared to those given a drink by their parents, a major new study has found

Boys who watch an average of two hours of television every day are at a higher risk of developing "conduct and emotional problems".

Dementia is more common in people who live near main roads, a major study has found, raising more concern about impact of traffic pollution on people's health.  

Hundreds of Victorians have been diagnosed with Ross River virus after heavy rains probably caused mosquito populations to surge, Victoria's Chief Health Officer says.

For 39-year-old Jacinta Jamieson, her specialist breast cancer nurse is a carer, therapist, social worker and friend in one comforting package.

Doctors and health experts have criticised a government review of vehicle emissions and air pollution for underreporting the health risks, sidelining the Minister for Health, and potentially putting thousands of Australians' lives at risk.

"In terms of knowledge, diagnosis, optimal treatment, guideline-based care, I'm pretty sure that machines are already, in some ways, much better than we are."

• COMMENT

This year you are going to lose weight. Really. Not like last year, when you tried to eat less and exercise more and ended up no lighter, but by approaching the problem differently. Because calories in and calories out is probably the worst way to think about it.

The deaths of Carrie Fisher and George Michael are the headline-grabbers that also highlight a wider social issue.

• COMMENT

I am an epic sleepwalker. A world class somnambulist. I defy you to find a better nightwalker. And it is magnificent.

A fourth case of the highly contagious measles has been detected in Sydney, prompting renewed warnings from health authorities after the latest patient visited multiple public sites while still infectious.

The Australian Red Cross Blood Service needs 5000 additional blood donors Christmas and New Years to stave off a blood shortage.

Elly Calabia doesn't talk about survival rates and life expectancy with her doctor. She's thinking of her Christmas decorations, her next home renovation and the ham she'll cook for her family on Sunday. 

A rise in cryptosporidium infections has triggered a warning from NSW health authorities urging the public to say out of swimming pools if they have diarrhoea.

Women who have had breast implants have been advised to talk to their doctor if they notice any changes in their breasts, after 46 Australian cases of rare anaplastic large cell lymphoma were linked to implants, three of which led to death.

Australia's move to prescription-only codeine within 18 months has sparked fears of stockpiling while appropriate users face added medical costs; and the problems of addiction and access to pain care remain.

• EXCLUSIVE

A Melbourne doctor who has given scores of sick people a lethal drug has won a fight against the medical board, with a tribunal ruling his practise is consistent with other forms of palliative care.