HEALTH STORIES IN THE HEADLINES 2017
A deadly flu season strikes, accidental opioid-related overdoses double, and a scientific "breakthrough" on miscarriage sparks controversy.
Fears for humanity as men's sperm counts plummet, young city-dwellers are told to get tested for gonorrhoea, and the PM slaps down a push for a sugar tax as Australia's waistline widens.
FLU
The flu season swept across Australia a month earlier than usual, and after the peak had claimed nearly 600 lives, mostly the elderly.
A fast-mutating and evolving strain of influenza A - H3N2 - defied efforts to stop its spread and was blamed for the majority of deaths.
At the start of December, there had been 234,869 laboratory-confirmed notifications of influenza in Australia for 2017, more than two-and-a-half times the number compared with the previous season.
The majority of deaths reported to the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS) were due to influenza A.
Health authorities were forced to concede that the standard vaccine had not been very effective in the over-65s, fast-tracking moves to introduce a 'super' vaccine in Australia to better protect the elderly in 2018.
OPIOID CRISIS TAKES ITS GRIP
The scourge of opioid addiction was put on the agenda of governments, medical experts and doctors around the world.
President Donald Trump declared opioid use in the US a public health emergency, with figures showing increasing numbers of people are dying every year as a result of their addiction to the powerful prescription medication.
Australia has not been immune to the crisis.
Analysis of ABS data, released by researchers at the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, showed accidental prescription opioid overdose deaths among young adults had more than doubled in the past 10 years.
Responding to the health emergency, The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) put their members on notice by releasing updated guidelines on prescribing opioids, in particular fentanyl - a synthetic opioid roughly 100 times more potent than morphine.
A report released by the Pennington Institute warned not one state or territory had been untouched by an "eight-fold" increase in fetanyl-related deaths.
AN AUSTRALIAN 'BREAKTHROUGH' MARRED BY CONTROVERSY
Controversy overshadowed a brilliant science discovery relating to birth defects and miscarriage made by Australian researchers.
Led by Professor Sally Dunwoodie, scientists at the Victor Chang Institute discovered a deficiency in a vital molecule, known as NAD, prevents a baby's organs from developing correctly in the womb.
They also showed in animal models that this deficiency can be "cured" with the supplementation of vitamin B3, also known as niacin. The study was published in the prestigious medical journal The New England Journal of Medicine.
But it was the way the study's possible implications - the prevention of thousands of miscarriages through "simply" taking vitamin B3 - were sold to the media that came under fire.
The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RANZCOG) President Professor Steve Robson branded the claims as "harmful".
PUZZLING RISE IN GONORRHOEA RATES
Figures revealed the rates of sexually transmitted infection (STI) gonorrhoea have soared in Australia, with the news grabbing headlines overseas and leaving experts puzzled.
The latest surveillance report on Australia's sexual health, released by the Kirby Institute at UNSW Sydney, showed diagnoses of gonorrhoea increased by 63 per over the past five years, particularly among young city-dwelling heterosexual young men and women.
Increased testing, antibiotic resistance and a lack of condom wearing all were all largely ruled out as the driving forces for the concerning prevalence of the STI.
Kissing was identified as one possible factor, due to the fact more young Australians are having oral sex. Dating apps like Tinder were also identified as possible suspects.
MEN GET WAKE-UP CALL ABOUT THE HEALTH OF THEIR SPERM
Scientists confirmed and quantified a sharp and ongoing drop in sperm counts across the globe, raising fears for male fertility and broader human health.
An international study published in journal Human Reproduction Update found sperm counts in Australia, Europe and North America plummeted by 52.4 per cent in just 40 years.
The reasons for the drop in sperm numbers remain mysterious, although the scientists suggested that western men's exposure to modern commercial chemicals could be a factor.
Some experts were also quick to blame obesity, leading to calls from experts for men to improve their diets and increase their physical activity levels.
A SUGAR TAX DISMISSED BY TURNBULL GOVERNMENT
Widespread, consistent calls from public health experts for a sugar tax to tackle the obesity crisis were slapped down by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
As the waistlines of Australians continue to grow at an alarming rate, a coalition of health and community groups, led by the Obesity Policy Coalition, Cancer Council and Heart Foundation, proposed a 20 per cent tax on sweetened beverages as part of a strategic national action plan to turn around the growing rates of obesity in Australia.
Figures released this years showed young Australian adults are nearly twice as likely to be obese as their parents and one in five kids are now overweight before they start school.
According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare data, nearly two in three Australian adults were overweight or obese in 2014/15, up from 57 per cent in 1995.
Mr Turnbull said imposing another tax on consumers was not the solution. Education on the consequences of a poor diet is a better approach, said the prime minister.
