Danger lurks in some gardens

Scotsman Gregor Campbell can breathe easier now he
has been treated for a chronic fungal lung infection.

Scottish teacher Gregor Campbell is joining United Kingdom doctors to warn gardeners who have asthma or a weak immune system to be on alert for a deadly fungus that lurks in compost heaps and in piles of rotting leaves.

Experts advise wearing masks to protect against the microscopic dust that is given off when rotting leaf, plant and tree mulch is moved, particularly when people tidy up their gardens in preparation for winter.

Father of three, Gregor 47, an art teacher, knows first-hand the devastating effects the fungus can have. Two years ago he developed a chronic fungal infection after cutting up wet and rotting logs to store and dry out for the winter.

He recalls: “That summer I was being treated by the doctor for a lung condition, but I had been cycling to work every day and was I feeling well. One weekend I started getting night sweats and on the Monday I was in hospital. I was told I had pneumonia and was treated with antibiotics. I wasn’t getting better. I lost a lot of weight. I only started to recover when the consultant correctly diagnosed chronic pulmonary aspergillosis and prescribed me special drugs to fight the fungal infection,” he says.

Gregor now only has two thirds of his breathing capacity after a fungal mass the size of a tennis ball was discovered in his lungs, and he has had to reduce his teaching time to three days a week. However, he considers himself one of the lucky ones. 

“I was diagnosed pretty quickly and I am being looked after by the experts. I always thought that outside dirt was safe dirt. The suddenness of the whole thing shocked me the most. I would caution anyone contemplating clearing up their garden for the winter to wear a mask – and keep well away from mouldy logs and rotting leaves.”

Professor David Denning and his team at the National Aspergillosis Centre* in Manchester, have issued the warning after treating a growing number of patients who have developed the condition from inhaling the Aspergillus fungal spores. 

“Keen gardeners bed down their gardens for the winter. For most of us there is no problem. But for others it can cause long term breathing difficulties and damage that can be treated but never cured. 

Most people are either immune to the fungus or have a sufficiently healthy system to fight the infection. 

But, in asthma sufferers it can produce coughing and wheeziness, and in people with weak or damaged immune systems, such as cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, Aids patients and people who have an auto-immune disease like Gregor, the fungus can cause pulmonary aspergillosis – a condition which can cause irreparable, and sometimes fatal damage to the lungs and sinuses, Professor Denning says.

“Aspergillus is a fungus that occurs everywhere in the world and normally lives on dead animal or plant material, in this role it is vitally important to the environment and for the recycling of organic material necessary for life.”

It produces microscopically small spores that are extremely light and float easily in the air and by this mechanism it is spread.

Professor Denning says, normally, when aspergillus spores are inhaled by people, their immune system recognises the spores as foreign and they are destroyed and no infection arises. Occasionally, in an individual with a weakened immune system or who has a pre-existing medical condition the aspergillus spores can grow inside a lung or a wound. 

“My advice would be when in doubt wear a protective mask to be safe rather than sorry,” he says.

Side bar: This is the first centre in the world dedicated to aspergillosis. It is based at Wythenshawe Hospital, UHSM, in Manchester for the diagnosis and treatment of chronic pulmonary aspergillosis, and houses specialist diagnostics and research into all forms of aspergillosis.

Life balance recharges batteries

Ever decreasing circles: The mouse keeps going but never gets anywhere.

Stress from busy lives can crash in on us and start affecting us in sometimes serious ways when we least expect it because we are often just too involved to recognise the signs.

So how do we stop that ‘mouse on a treadmill’ situation and give ourselves a real break?

New Zealand-based creative arts therapist and counsellor Josie Scott has some useful tips on how to slow down and ‘smell the roses’ a bit.

Q: How does taking a break from your job help to cut stress?

A: It helps me by stepping back, gaining new perspective, re-fuelling and therefore topping up my energy tank.

Q: What dangers are there in not taking a break?

A: Burnout! Becoming resentful, not enjoying what I'm doing workwise, and becoming over-tired and frustrated.

Q: What effects can it have on the mental health if people don’t stop and recharge the batteries – emotionally and physically?

A: Emotionally - tearful, anxious/worried, low (at worse depressed). Physically - run down, more prone to illness, lack of sleep.

Q: Once people are back at work, how can they keep control of their stress levels?

A: Good self-care, well balanced diet, rest, exercise, regular time-out, have fun! 

Q: What kind of exercises can people do to relieve work stress, or any stress?

A: Yoga, walking, gym, running, breathing.

Q: If people can’t go on an overseas holiday, what kind of activities besides meditation can they do at home?

A: Anything creative; making music, listening to music, reading for relaxation, walking, breathing, fun time with family/friends, visual art, gardening, cooking, walk the dog – the list is endless!

Q: What kind of help is there for people who suffer from high stress?

A: GP, counselling/therapy, community groups, friends/family.

Making a difference in medicine

Moving forward: Dawn Pasina is looking forward to working in the New Zealand health system  to continue to make a difference in the industry. 

By Robyn Downey

Cook Island-born peadiatrician Dawn Pasina has brought valuable skills from her beloved homeland to add to New Zealand’s wide mix of dedicated health professionals.

Dawn, a mother of three, now lives in New Zealand and is currently studying hard for her re-registration exams to work as a doctor here.

From teacher parents there were various ideas her father had of Dawn’s choice of career path, from lawyer to electrical engineer, she laughs.

But she decided to go into the medical field after an accident in her mid-teens which culminated in a referral to a surgeon, although she had spent her formative years in the company of doctors who were family friends, she doesn’t think this was the catalyst to her final decision.

“Making my decision for medicine probably came after I broke my arm, falling off a motorbike when I was 16.” 

She believes her injury needing specialist care opened up her curiosity about making people well.

Dawn gained her medical qualifications in Fiji, after gaining a World Health Organisation (WHO) sponsorship to study at Fiji National University (formerly known as the Fiji School of Medicine). 

She is most proud of having been able to make a significant contribution to healthcare in her home country.

“I am passionate about advocating for continuing to improve guidelines,” Dawn says.

This was also why she played a key role in reviving the Cook’s medical council.

“We did have a health reform in 2005 – 2006 which addressed a few things and built on our strengths.”

This all opened up a path to progress, although the down side saw some staff leave to find greener pastures, which had become a sad reality, she says.

Dawn sees an ever-growing need in childrens’ health mostly in the area of funding, generally. 

“My colleagues and I had been fighting for nearly a decade to make paediatrics seen as an area of real specialised care, because working with children is a whole different ball game altogether to adult health,” Dawn says. 

She sees her biggest achievements for childrens’ health having been; setting up an appointment-based clinic, getting in paediatric specialist visits from Starship Childrens’ Hospital in New Zealand as opposed to youngsters being seen by the adult visiting specialists, and getting a nurse for her department. 

She also sees a need for more parenting programmes back in her homeland.

“With struggling lives, sometimes the children get a bit forgotten,” she says. 

Dawn has a huge admiration for child psychologist Margaret Weston, who is key in the Triple P programme. (See side bar)

“We are very hopeful to get something going in the Cook Islands around that and Margaret continues to do amazing work. I hope to possibly do some training in that area early next year,” Dawn says.

“Interestingly, I heard on newstalk [recently] a police officer based in Mangere mentioned how children are not the ones in poverty.”

She says there are priority issues with some families generally and “our [some New Zealand] families are caught in a vicious cycle which they sometimes feel they can’t get out of. But how we address that is easier said than done”.

Dawn believes that because children are our future generations, things can only change with better teaching; be it in education, health, nutrition to name a few areas.

“I think focusing on families is the way to go to address our paediatric issues,” she says.

All this, the need for some life balance and yet looking for new challenges, led Dawn into considering the natural health industry. 

That was when she was blown away by the aspects of health science distributed by network marketing - New Zealand’s $232 million-per-year growth industry.

As a doctor, Dawn could see the benefits of a more preventative and holistic approach to health with vitamins, minerals and antioxidants all put together to assist the body to work at optimum levels.

“It was fate I believe, and when I learnt more about it from people involved in it already, there was no looking back for me.”

With her medical understanding and aspirations as well as now working with the natural health approach for herself in her down time, she is excited about the future.

“When I complete my re-registration, I will probably work as a gp and perhaps full naturopathy but I’m still undecided on that yet. I may take on some management and administration study to do with medicine to help our young doctors coming along behind.”

To work as a specialist in New Zealand would require many more years of study, which is a bit of a hard juggle while bringing up a young family, she says. 

After years of holding down a stressful job with high responsibility, Dawn now understands the importance of, at times, just ‘going with the flow’ and where life takes her.

She feels recently becoming involved with natural health has helped her to see that.

She is also a woman of strong faith.

“Not forgetting of course my heavenly father who has a plan for everyone,” she says.

Dedicated: Childrens’ health is different to adult health and requires specialised care, says Dawn.

Find Dawn on Facebook here.

The Triple P - Positive Parenting Program was started at the University of Queensland and works by helping parents to improve their parenting skills in order to establish positivity with their children. Triple P is a scientifically researched, family intervention strategy.

Getting away to a tropical retreat

Newspaper offices can be crazy places whether they are situated in the centre of a big city or a rural New Zealand town.

Northland New Zealand’s Pat Milich decided to recharge her batteries and take a break from her busy front desk as administrator of the Dargaville & Districts News to join family on the Pacific Island get-away of Samoa for six days.

Experts say getting time away from work is a necessity to give people time to destress and refresh themselves before returning for the next round of challenges in their workplaces.

Pat’s New Zealand-born son-in-law runs a charter boat on the island of Upolo and the family decided ditch the New Zealand winter and recharge their batteries offshore.

“It was a chance to have a rest and to see another country, to get a different view of how other people live,” Pat says.

Although she wasn’t staying in the touristy area on the southern side of the island, she did visit and found the people were very friendly everywhere.

However, the family lived in a gate-secured community on the northern side.

But it was still pretty cruisy for a much-needed break.

“We had our own swimming pool, which was great as I’m not a fan of salt water,” Pat says.

In the tourist area, fales (thatched-rooved, raised houses) were dotted along the beaches, where the islanders slept on mats in the heat, which can sometimes range betwwen 30 and 40 degrees, with sometimes a 90+ percent humidity levels.

“Sometimes we just lay there and relaxed. The highlight would have been the scenery, which is absolutely beautiful, with great service from restaurants and accommodation facilities, people are always smiling. I think we ate out every night, as it’s very reasonable, price-wise. But this is all part of a good holiday!”

She was interested in how on the southern side of the island, people make their fence battens out of various vegetation such as paw paw branches.

“You see all these banana and paw paw growing wild on the side of the road. We were treated to a dinner which is similar to the Maori hangi, but it was cooked on volcanic rock, which heats everything quickly. It was more like a roasted meal rather than the steaming type process used in the hangi method and not smoked,” she says. 

Two other points of interest included seeing a hint of evidence of the 2009 tsunami, where the resort of Sinilai and coconut groves had been completely wiped out, and they had been restored to their former glory.

Further along, it wasn’t long before coming to a place called Lalomanu; with Nu’utele and Nu’uala Islands that local folk lore says was an early lepper colony.

Pat shares some of her photographic memories, we decided to run, just to show how good it can be to ‘chill out’ and de-stress.

Majestic: A cathedral at Apia towers in the idyllic tropical paradise.

Colourful: Samoa delivered up some dramatically colourful flowers for tourists who visit.

Shady retreat: Thatched fales give good cover out of the heat of the sun for relaxing on Lalomanu.

An earthquake of 8.3 magnitude triggered a tsunami which devastated villages along the southern coasts of Samoa, American Samoa, and the northern islands of Tonga on September 29, 2009. 

More than 4500 people were directly affected by the tsunami, with social and economic impacts affecting many thousands more. Over 3000 people were made homeless. - See more at: http://www.oxfam.org.nz/what-we-do/emergencies/samoa-tsunami#sthash.uuZecc3U.dpuf

- Oxfam New Zealand website