Challenges that multiple sclerosis presents include early detection, awareness of new therapies, work with multidisciplinary teams and its long-term management as a chronic disease.

This month’s issue spotlights a common movement disorder in general practice – Parkinson’s disease – in addition to discussing assessment of gait and the importance of posture.

Parkinson’s disease is now recognised as a whole-body disorder, not a motor disorder with accompanying non-motor features.

An open and engaging discussion will assist patients in making an informed decision on whether pre-exposure prophylaxis is suitable for them.

Patients with advanced age, significant comorbidities and poor functional status may not gain a survival benefit with dialysis when compared with being managed conservatively.

Physical inactivity is a major modifiable contributor to the global burden of cardiovascular disease morbidity and mortality.

An absolute risk–based approach is superior to the traditional individual risk factor approach when calculating cardiovascular disease risk.

This study provided a timely assessment of general practitioner knowledge and attitudes to prescribing pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV.

Primary care has much to offer in the future diagnosis and management of familial hypercholesterolaemia, but it requires greater awareness and a better appreciation of cumulative cholesterol burden.

Pretreatment assessment and correction of serum calcium and vitamin D levels can reduce the risk of denosumab-related hypocalcaemia in chronic kidney disease.

Diagnostically, Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease is a challenging condition to detect premortem because of non-specific clinical manifestations.

The broad and often subtle presentation of coeliac disease makes detection subtle, and 80% of Australians with this disease remain undiagnosed.

With a rising global burden of cardiovascular disease risk factors among young adults, there is an urgent need to improve awareness and increase screening.

This paper aims to provide a synopsis of health and economic burden of interstitial lung diseases in Australia, based on recently completed research.

When using topical options for treating low-grade lesions, it is important to inform the patient about possible treatment failure and the need to have another intervention if the lesion recurs.