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Research

Interventions to eliminate rheumatic heart disease

Funded by a 5-year NHMRC Investigator grant to implement a strategy to eliminate rheumatic heart disease (RHD) as a public health problem in Australia.

Research

RHD Screening Program - GE Healthcare

This project aims to empower local clinicians with skills and knowledge of using handheld echocardiography (HAND) that will allow for mobile service provision into remote Indigenous communities.

Research

START: Towards a diagnostic test for rheumatic fever

In this study we will use new methods to comprehensively test immune responses in blood samples from people with ARF (diagnosed using the Jones Criteria) and healthy volunteers at Royal Darwin and from Auckland Hospital, New Zealand, to find any unique signature that reliably identifies ARF.

Research

Perturbation of the T Cell Compartment Underlies Rheumatic Fever Pathogenesis

This prospective cohort study, which recruited participants with definite ARF in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, profiled circulating immune molecules and cells to inform disease mechanisms and future druggable pathways.

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Ending rheumatic heart disease in Australia: the evidence for a new approach

The RHD Endgame Strategy: the blueprint to eliminate rheumatic heart disease in Australia by 2031 (the Endgame Strategy) is the blueprint to eliminate rheumatic heart disease (RHD) in Australia by 2031. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people live with one of the highest per capita burdens of RHD in the world.

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Subcutaneous administration of benzathine benzylpenicillin G has favourable pharmacokinetic characteristics for the prevention of rheumatic heart disease compared with intramuscular injection

Benzathine penicillin G has been used as monthly deep intramuscular (IM) injections since the 1950s for secondary prevention of acute rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease (RHD). Injection frequency and pain are major programmatic barriers for adherence, prompting calls for development of better long-acting penicillin preparations to prevent RHD.

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Inter-rater and intra-rater reliability and agreement of echocardiographic diagnosis of rheumatic heart disease using the World Heart Federation evidence-based criteria

The WHF echocardiographic criteria enable reproducible categorisation of echocardiograms as definite RHD versus no or borderline RHD

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Evaluation of a phased pneumococcal conjugate vaccine introduction in Mongolia using enhanced pneumonia surveillance and community carriage surveys

Streptococcus pneumoniae causes substantial morbidity and mortality among children. The introduction of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCV) has the potential to dramatically reduce disease burden. As with any vaccine, it is important to evaluate PCV impact, to help guide decision-making and resource-allocation.

Research

Indigenous compared with non-Indigenous Australian patients at entry to specialist palliative care: Cross-sectional findings from a multi-jurisdictional dataset

Indigenous patients are substantially underrepresented in care by services participating in the nationwide specialist palliative care Collaboration, likely reflecting widespread access barriers.