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A cure for multiple myeloma – a malignancy of plasma cells originating from the bone marrow – is on the cards if breakthroughs continue to come at the rate of the past decade, according to researchers.

Student nurses should be equipped with tools to deal with stress as a routine part of their training, according to the results of a new study. The research authors made the recommendation after discovering the pressure associated with nursing studies was an “important risk factor” in the mental health of students.

Researchers at QUT and QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute have found that the dengue fever mosquito common to north and central Queensland poses the greatest danger of spreading the Zika virus in Australia.

A major breakthrough could herald a new era in the design and production of new antibiotics and anticancer agents. After 20 years of research, scientists have cracked the chemical code of an incredibly complex 'anti-tumour antibiotic' known to be highly effective against cancer cells as well as drug-resistant bacteria, and have reproduced it synthetically in the lab for the first time.

A large team of South Korean researchers has developed a possible blood test to detect the early stages of Alzheimer's disease in patients who have yet to exhibit symptoms. 

The past decade has seen significant, sustained improvements in hand hygiene compliance among Australian healthcare workers, with reduced risks of potentially fatal healthcare-associated Staphylococcus aureus infection. And nurses have consistently led by example with the highest hygiene compliance, according to new research into the Australian National Hand Hygiene Initiative (NHHI), published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases. 

Targets to eliminate pain after surgery have driven increases in the use of opioids and are a major cause of the opioid crisis in the US, Canada and other countries, according to a series of articles published in The Lancet, bringing together global evidence detailing the role of surgery in the opioid crisis. 

The US is currently in the grip of a well-publicised opioid crisis that has devastated communities across the country. Now nurses in New York are using geospatial mapping of opioid overdoses to inform clinical practice at a local clinic level in “real time”. 

Stress-related disorders may be linked to a heightened risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), according to a large Swedish study, “Stress related disorders and risk of cardiovascular disease: population based, sibling controlled cohort study”, published in The BMJ.

A disease that causes chronic headaches and even blindness in women, and has puzzled researchers for more than 100 years, may be caused by excess androgens, particularly testosterone, that modulate secretion of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), UK researchers have discovered.