couples

Cheat sheet: Thursday's news in 60 seconds.

Your speedy update on all the day’s stories, Thursday, June 26 2014

1. Newborns in “mini epidemic” of potentially fatal virus.

Doctors are warning parents to be on the lookout after hundreds of newborn babies were infected with a dangerous virus that is similar to hand, foot and mouth disease.

The Age reports about 300 babies have contracted Parechovirus – a respiratory and gastrointestinal infection that can cause a sepsis-like illness – since late last year.

Symptoms for babies under three months are a red rash, irritability, fever and diarrhoea. Some children may require treatment in intensive care.

Dr Julian Druce, of the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory, described the outbreak as a “mini-epidemic” to The Age.

2. Seven-year-old boy dies in the snow.

A Melbourne boy has passed away on Mount Buller. The seven-year-old was on holiday with his family when he wandered away and the family raised the alert of him missing for 20 minutes. He disappeared from his family around 4:30pm yesterday and was found at 6:30pm by ski patrollers who were part of the search effort about 50m from the family’s Mt Buller Chalet apartment. He was unconscious and buried beneath the snow.

He was taken to Mt Buller Medical Centre, where he went into cardiac arrest. Doctors worked for an hour to revive him but weren’t able to. Acting Sergeant Matt Bennett told the local radio station that the boy was believed to have been buried by snow that came off a roof. It was also reported on the local radio station that it was zero-degrees Celsius at the time the little boy went missing. The death is being treated as non-suspicious.

Our thoughts are with the family.

3. No smoking for those born after 2000.

A plan for no one born after the age of 2000 to be sold cigarettes is gaining momentum in the UK.

The proposal was first suggested in Singapore, then considered by Tasmania in 2012. Now the British Medical Association’s annual representative meeting in the UK have voted overwhelmingly for a campaign to bring in the idea.

Dr Tim Crocker-Buque told The Guardian: “The idea of this proposal is to prevent those children who are not smoking from taking up smoking.”

ADVERTISEMENT

4. New evidence against Justin Ross Harris suggests he may have intentionally left his son in the car.

Image via KIRO 7 Eyewitness News Facebook

Justin Ross Harris has been charged with murder and cruelty to children in the first degree after leaving his 22-month-old son, Cooper, in the car all day. Harris alleges it was an accident - forgetting to drop the toddler off at childcare and only realising it after work and driving home to find his son in the back seat. Yesterday, 11,000 people came to his defence signing a petition to drop all charges, saying the death of his son was punishment enough.

However, new evidence suggests he intentionally left his son in the car. The MailOnline reports that:

  • Harris told a bystander, who was assisting to revive the child, that his son had been choking.
  • Police said that "during lunch said accused did access the same vehicle through the driver's side door to place an object into the vehicle".
  • An eyewitness told MailOnline that they thought Harris was "acting". Edward Cockerham said "I know he had lost his baby but he was acting up more than he should have been. It seemed like acting to me. I think the dad knew all along that his baby was dead because he’d been left in the car, I think he was looking round for a place where there was people so he could make it look like the baby had choked and it wasn’t his fault."
  • Harris drove for 10 minutes before stopping - some witnesses saying he would have seen his son well before this, alleging he was looking for a crowded spot to stop.

Harris pleaded not guilty to the charges.

5. Gerard Baden-Clay takes the stand.

Gerard Baden-Clay is accuseed of murdering his wife Allison Baden-Clay on Aptil 19, 2012. He has pleaded not guilty.

Today, Baden-Clay's barrister Michael Byrne QC said, “Members of the jury, Gerard Baden-Clay will get into the witness box.’’

Crime chief reporter, Kate Kyriacou, reports from her twitter account:

  • Gerard gets the number of years he'd been married wrong as Byrne asks whether he killed his wife. "No I did not."
  • Gerard says no to questions did he dispose of her body, clean up afterwards.
  • Gerard: We were planning on spending the rest of our lives together.
  • Gerard on Toni (the woman alleged to be his mistress): In my mind we did not have a relationship.
  • Gerard on scratches: I got them when I was shaving. Asked if he was scratched by his wife: Never.

6. Women who have kids later are more likely to live until very old age.

Women still having babies after 33 are more likely to live until they’re very old, a new study has revealed.

A study published today in scientific journal Menopause compared 311 women who lived to 95 with 151 women who died younger – with shocking results, The Boston Globe reports. The study found that “those who got pregnant naturally and successfully birthed their last child after age 33 were twice as likely to live to age 95 compared to those who had their last child by age 29,” according to The Boston Globe.

As one of the researchers told the Washington Post:

“We think the same genes that allow a woman to naturally have a kid at an older age are the same genes that play a really important role in slowing down the rate of ageing and decreasing the risk for age-related diseases, such as heart attacks, stroke, diabetes and cancer,” said Thomas Perls, a professor who specializes in geriatrics at Boston University Medical Center, and a principal investigator of the study.

The study only considered women who’d conceived without fertility drugs.