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Research

Evidence suggests that Aboriginal babies in Western Australia are not receiving adequate primary health care in their first 3 months of life, leading to questions about enablers and constraints to delivering such care. This paper presents findings from a qualitative research project investigating health providers' perceptions and experiences of best and current practice in discharge planning, postnatal care and health education for Aboriginal mothers and their newborn babies.

Research

There has been renewed interest in the therapeutic use of bacteriophages (phages); however, standardised therapeutic protocols are lacking, and there is a paucity of rigorous clinical trial data assessing efficacy.

News & Events

A dose of the whooping cough vaccine might reduce cases of childhood food allergies according to latest research by the Wesfarmers Centre of Vaccines and Infectious Diseases based at The Kids Research Institute Australia.

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Two The Kids Research Institute Australia research teams have been awarded more than $3.5 million to fund innovative projects.

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The major funder of the Wesfarmers Centre of Vaccines and Infectious Diseases based at The Kids Research Institute Australia has been recognised as Australia’s most generous giver.

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One of Australia’s leading infectious disease experts, Associate Professor Asha Bowen, has been announced as a finalist for the country’s leading national science awards – the Australian Museum Eureka Prizes.

Research

Vaccination in pregnancy is the best strategy to reduce complications from influenza or pertussis infection in infants who are too young to be protected directly from vaccination. Pregnant women are also at risk of influenza complications preventable through antenatal vaccination. Both vaccines are funded under the National Immunisation Program for pregnant women in Australia, but coverage is not routinely reported nationally. 

Research

As herpes simplex virus in infancy is not a mandatory notifiable condition in Australia, completeness of ascertainment by the Australian Paediatric Surveillance Unit (APSU) has been difficult to evaluate to date. We evaluated case capture in Queensland and Western Australia using statewide laboratory and clinical data and complementary surveillance data collected via the APSU.

Research

Invasive pulmonary aspergillosis remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality for immunocompromised children, particularly for patients with acute leukaemia and those undergoing haematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Timely diagnosis, using a combination of computed tomography (CT) imaging and microbiological testing, is key to improve prognosis, yet there are inherent challenges in this process. For CT imaging, changes in children are generally less specific than those reported in adults and recent data are limited.

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Up to 40,000 influenza cases could be prevented in Western Australia this winter if more primary school-aged children were vaccinated, researchers at The Kids Research Institute Australia have found.

Research

Belaynew Christopher Peter Hannah Minda Huong Taye Blyth Richmond Moore Sarna Le MD, MPH, PhD MBBS (Hons) DCH FRACP FRCPA PhD MBBS MRCP(UK) FRACP OAM

Research

Type 1 diabetes, one of the common chronic conditions in children and adolescents, is a serious lifelong condition requiring daily treatment with exogenous insulin for survival. Descriptive epidemiology is important for planning of adequate diabetes health-care provision and could provide clues to aetiology. Over the past few decades, standardised diabetes incidence registries have provided a wealth of data from selected countries.

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Genomic sequence data from worldwide human populations have provided a range of novel insights into our shared ancestry and the historical migrations that have shaped our global genetic diversity.

Research

Prebiotics research in the last decade has come a long way due to the maturation of omics technologies (genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and foodomics) and bioinformatics tools.

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Meta-analyses and single-site studies have established that children are less infectious than adults within a household when positive for ancestral SARS-CoV-2. In addition, children appear less susceptible to infection when exposed to ancestral SARS-CoV-2 within a household. The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOC) has been associated with an increased number of paediatric infections worldwide.

Research

The importance of supporting parent-child interactions has been noted in the context of prodromal autism, but little consideration has been given to the possible contributing role of parental characteristics, such as psychological distress. This cross-sectional study tested models in which parent-child interaction variables mediated relations between parent characteristics and child autistic behaviour in a sample of families whose infant demonstrated early signs of autism.

Research

For children with cerebral palsy (CP), who are marginally ambulant, gross motor capacity peaks between 6 and 7 years of age with a subsequent clinical decline, impacting their ability to engage in physical activity. Active Strides-CP is a novel package of physiotherapy targeting body functions, activity and participation outcomes for children with bilateral CP. This study will compare Active Strides-CP to usual care in a multisite randomised waitlist-controlled trial.

Research

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a rare, inherited, life-limiting condition predominantly affecting the lungs, for which there is no cure. The disease is characterized by recurrent pulmonary exacerbations (PEx), which are thought to drive progressive lung damage. Management of these episodes is complex and generally involves multiple interventions targeting different aspects of disease. The emergence of innovative trials and use of Bayesian statistical methods has created renewed opportunities for studying heterogeneous populations in rare diseases.

Research

Addressing the recognized challenges and inequalities in providing high quality healthcare for rare diseases such as children's interstitial lung disease (chILD) requires collaboration across institutional, geographical, discipline, and system boundaries. The Children's Interstitial Lung Disease Respiratory Network of Australia and New Zealand (chILDRANZ) is an example of a clinical network that brings together multidisciplinary health professionals for collaboration, peer learning, and advocacy with the goal of improving the diagnosis and management of this group of rare and ultra-rare conditions.