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In remote communities of northern Australia, First Nations children with hearing loss are disproportionately at risk of poor school readiness and performance compared to their peers with no hearing loss. The aim of this trial is to prevent early childhood persisting otitis media (OM), associated hearing loss and developmental delay.

To identify the barriers and facilitators for timely detection and optimal management of otitis media in Aboriginal children in a primary care setting from the perspective of carers of Aboriginal children. 

Chronic suppurative otitis media (CSOM) is a leading global cause of potentially preventable hearing loss in children and adults, associated with socioeconomic deprivation. There is an absence of consensus on the definition of CSOM, which complicates efforts for prevention, treatment, and monitoring.

To identify and review key research advances from the literature published between 2019 and 2023 on the diagnosis and microbiology of otitis media (OM) including acute otitis media (AOM), recurrent AOM (rAOM), otitis media with effusion (OME), chronic suppurative otitis media (CSOM) and AOM complications (mastoiditis). 

Otitis media is very common in Aboriginal children in Western Australia and chronic ear disease causes major problems in speech and language development and education. Up until recently, most programmes dealing with the problem of OM have focused on clinical interventions rather than prevention. The Enhanced Prevention Working Group was established as part of the WA Child Ear Health Strategy (2017–2021). The Group has worked collaboratively to develop a set of recommendations for prevention of OM in Aboriginal children.

We have demonstrated that a single dose of a closely related commensal can delay onset of NTHi otitis media in vivo

The most urgent areas appear to be to continue monitoring the emergence of novel otopathogens, and the need to develop prevention and preventative therapies

Presence of bacterial otopathogen in the middle ear during ventilation tube insertion was a predictor of children at-risk of repeat ventilation tube insertion

Treatment of chronic suppurative otitis media with topical antibiotics probably results in an increase in resolution of ear discharge compared with boric acid

We are uncertain about the effectiveness of topical antibiotics in improving resolution of ear discharge in patients with chronic suppurative otitis media