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Parents' COVID-19 vaccine intentions for children under 5 years: Brief reflections from a qualitative study

Australian authorities made COVID-19 vaccines available for children aged under 5 years old with serious comorbidities in August 2022. There is presently no universal programme for young children, but crucial to any rollout's success is whether parents are motivated and able to vaccinate. By examining parents' vaccine intentions, this study aims to inform current and future COVID-19 vaccine roll-outs for children aged under 5 years.

National guidelines bring new order to autism diagnosis

Clinicians across Australia are looking forward to the release of the country’s first national guidelines for the diagnosis of autism.

The Kids’ clinical autism service wins WA disability award

CliniKids has won the Allied Health Professionals category at the Western Australian Disability Support Awards, announced at Crown Perth on the weekend.

Landmark Australian influenza collaboration finalist for Eureka Prize

Infectious disease researchers who used a decade of scientific evidence to advocate for a nationwide childhood influenza immunisation policy have earned a finalist position at the country’s most prestigious science awards – the Australian Museum Eureka Prizes.

Study finds Covid-19 severity reduced for children

An international study examining Covid-19 severity on hospitalised children and adolescents has found that as the virus became more infectious, intensive care admissions dropped across multiple age groups regardless of vaccination status.

Novel coenzyme Q6 genetic variant increases susceptibility to pneumococcal disease

Acute lower respiratory tract infection (ALRI) remains a major worldwide cause of childhood mortality, compelling innovation in prevention and treatment. Children in Papua New Guinea (PNG) experience profound morbidity from ALRI caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae. As a result of evolutionary divergence, the human PNG population exhibits profound genetic variation and diversity. To address unmet health needs of children in PNG, we tested whether genetic variants increased ALRI morbidity.

Editorial: Bench to bedside: translating pre-clinical research into clinical trials for childhood brain tumors

Nick Raelene Gottardo Endersby MBChB FRACP PhD BSc (Hons) PhD Head of Paediatric and Adolescent Oncology and Haematology, Perth Children’s Hospital;

Systems pharmacogenomics identifies novel targets and clinically actionable therapeutics for medulloblastoma

Medulloblastoma is the most common malignant paediatric brain tumour and a leading cause of cancer-related mortality and morbidity. Existing treatment protocols are aggressive in nature resulting in significant neurological, intellectual and physical disabilities for the children undergoing treatment. Thus, there is an urgent need for improved, targeted therapies that minimize these harmful side effects.

Defining the molecular features of radiation-induced glioma: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Cranial radiation therapy is essential in treating many pediatric cancers, especially brain tumors; however, its use comes with the risk of developing second malignancies. Cranial radiation-induced gliomas (RIGs) are aggressive high-grade tumors with a dismal prognosis, for which no standard therapy exists. A definitive molecular signature for RIGs has not yet been established. We sought to address this gap by performing a systematic review and meta-analysis of the molecular features of cranial RIGs.

Unusual paediatric spinal myxopapillary ependymomas: Unique molecular entities or pathological variations on a theme?

We describe two unusual cases of MPE and use DNA methylation analyses to compare their signatures to try and distinguish if these represent a unique subset.