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Acute rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease disproportionately affect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia, with devastating impacts on morbidity, mortality and community wellbeing. Research suggests that general practitioners and primary care staff perceive insurmountable barriers to improving clinical outcomes, including the need for systemic change outside their scope of practice.

Antimicrobials are the most commonly prescribed drug class in children. Overuse through inappropriate prescribing is a key driver of antimicrobial resistance and is recognized as one of the top 10 threats to global health by the World Health Organization.

The suboptimal sensitivity and specificity of available diagnostic methods for scabies hampers clinical management, trials of new therapies and epidemiologic studies. Additionally, parasitologic diagnosis by microscopic examination of skin scrapings requires sample collection with a sharp scalpel blade, causing discomfort to patients and difficulty in children. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based diagnostic assays, combined with non-invasive sampling methods, represent an attractive approach.

Amidst the evolving COVID-19 pandemic, understanding the transmission dynamics of the SARS-CoV-2 virus is key to providing peace of mind for the community and informing policy-making decisions. While available data suggest that school-aged children are not significant spreaders of SARS-CoV-2, the possibility of transmission in schools remains an ongoing concern, especially among an aging teaching workforce. Even in low-prevalence settings, communities must balance the potential risk of transmission with the need for students' ongoing education.

The prevalence of group A streptococcal disease remains high among symptomatic individuals residing in Africa

These data highlight the importance of recognising Sporotrichosis in children outside an outbreak setting

The Australian National Healthy Skin Guideline summarises evidence-based treatment of impetigo, scabies and fungal infections in high burden settings

The Group A β-hemolytic Streptococcus pharyngeal carriage rates seen in Uganda (15.9%) are higher than the most recent pooled results globally, at 12%

Health service utilisation in this setting may be enhanced by improving general awareness of the significance of childhood skin infections

There is low coverage of the multivalent M protein vaccine in our setting, emphasizing the need to reformulate the vaccine to improve coverage