diseases-and-disorders

She was said to have caught it on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula, where cases seem to be on the rise.

Buruli ulcer, also known as Bairnsdale ulcer, occurs in many areas of the world, including Victoria.

Experts from Melbourne independent medical research centre, the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, have discovered carbohydrates play a vital role in the malaria parasite's infection of humans.

Justin Boddey and his team made the discovery, which debunks the long-held belief that the single-celled malaria parasite only uses proteins to infect humans.

"So what this research has shown is that the parasite tags many of the proteins on its surface with carbohydrates," he told AM.

In the post, the Good For You singer said fans had been wondering why she had been "laying low" over the summer.

"I found out I needed to get a kidney transplant due to my lupus and was recovering. It was what I needed to do for my overall health," she said.

The singer also shared images of a post-operative scar on her lower abdomen.

Heart Research Australia's Professor Gemma Figtree and her team reviewed almost 700 heart attack patients at Sydney's Royal North Shore Hospital from 2006 to 2014.

They found the rate of otherwise healthy patients having heart attacks went up from 11 per cent to a surprising 27 per cent of patients over eight years.

"As interventional cardiologists we all remember the fit, young patient that comes through the door and looks up at you and says 'Why me?'" Professor Figtree said.

The word cancer understandably strikes fear into the hearts of many, and most would assume the best course of action would be to have the cancer removed, whatever the side-effects may be.

But impotence and incontinence are no small side-effects, especially when you consider, as two new studies have done, removing the cancer is not necessarily the best option, and the cancer may not in fact require treatment at all.

Most prostate cancers take decades to exit the prostate, and most men will usually die with, but not from, prostate cancer.

But it's not working. My heart is still going a million miles an hour.

I'd experienced episodes of rapid heartbeat ever since I was a child. My mother told me they were called palpitations.

I mentioned them to a doctor once when I was a teenager and he jokingly asked if they were triggered by watching gyrating rock stars in music videos.

I took that to mean they were nothing to worry about.

Besides, I somehow discovered over the years that if they didn't go away by themselves, I could stop them by holding my breath for a short period.

The United National health agency said many of the bacteria have already evolved into deadly superbugs that are resistant to many antibiotics.

The bugs "have built-in abilities to find new ways to resist treatment" the WHO said, and can also pass on genetic material that allows other bacteria to become drug-resistant.

Governments need to invest in research and development if new drugs are to be found in time, because market forces cannot be relied upon to boost the funds needed to fight the bugs, it said.

Figures from Queensland Health showed 27,506 people were diagnosed with an STI in 2016, up 10 per cent on the previous year.

About 82 per cent of cases were for chlamydia, however experts have been surprised by a large spike in gonorrhoea.

In 2016, 4,006 Queenslanders were diagnosed with gonorrhoea, up from 3,038 the previous year.

The bacterial disease can affect both sexes, and has the potential to cause infertility in women and harm unborn babies.

Most cases were recorded Brisbane's Metro North and Metro South reporting areas.

Melbourne sales manager Briar Houston said she could hardly walk after the backs of her legs were sunburnt so badly they become blistered and swollen after she used Banana Boat's spray-on SPF 50 product.

"It was horrific, I wouldn't wish it on anyone," she told the ABC.

"I had other SPF factor everywhere else and I only put the Banana Boat SPF 50 aerosol on the back of my legs.

"I was not burnt anywhere else, not my face or my shoulders, no burns anywhere else."

The team found both the platypus and echidna produce a long-lasting form of the hormone glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1).

GLP-1 is normally secreted in the gut of both humans and animals, stimulating the release of insulin to lower blood glucose levels.

But GLP-1 typically degrades within minutes.

Lead researcher Frank Grutzner said his team was surprised to find the hormone was produced not only in the platypus' gut, but also in its venom.