A Halls Gap doctor is presently involved in a research movement believed to have the potential to change how many major diseases are treated.
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Dr Ivan Hooper has been involved in extensive research into vector-borne diseases, neurodegenerative disease and cancer and has also been part of various research projects focusing on infection control.
He is now a founding member of PANDIS, a movement he said is trying to better understand the source of various diseases.
"A group of us have set up a medical research charity, and what we're looking at is the role of infections in diseases," he said.
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"We believe the majority of diseases are associated with some background infections, and medical people haven't picked up on this yet."
Dr Hooper said there is plenty of existing evidence to support this thesis.
"At the moment our priority is multiple sclerosis where there's been quite a lot of evidence since 2011 linking infections with multiple sclerosis," he said.
"We believe one the reasons they've not been able to treat multiple sclerosis is because they're treating the symptoms and not the cause."
Dr Hooper said that properly understanding the role of infection in diseases would drastically change patient treatments.
"Just about all tumours have bacteria within them, so what I believe is that you can't treat many cancers without identifying the cause," he said.
"We'll be able to prevent many diseases by treating the infections early on and so preventing the progression."
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Dr Hooper and his colleagues' research efforts have been supported by a range of groups, from private individuals to the Rotary Club of Stawell.
Dr Hooper specifically acknowledged the support of the Geoff and Helen Handbury Foundation.
The foundation is a very active supporter of different causes in Western Victoria.
Geoff and Helen Handbury Foundation trustee Rowland Paterson said he was pleased they could support PANDIS.
"We see it as a very worthy program because of its use of innovative technologies and protocols to investigate causative agents in chronic disease," he said.
"Hopefully with the increase in research publicity it will become accepted as a major issue and opportunity."
People can support PANDIS by heading to pandis.org
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