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Skin infections send eight out of every 100 Aboriginal babies to hospital

In a WA first, researchers from The Kids Research Institute Australia have shown that Aboriginal babies are 22.5 times more likely to be treated for skin infections than non-Aboriginal babies.

Six-minute Strep A tests dramatically cut wait time in remote settings

Children at risk of potentially life-threatening Strep A infections no longer have to wait five days for timely treatment, thanks to a The Kids Research Institute Australia study conducted in the remote Kimberley region of Western Australia.

Expert researchers converge on Broome to tackle health challenges in Northern Australia

Over 100 researchers and health professionals from around Australia have united in Broome this week to address the major health battles facing people living in the tropical north of the country.

Call for Group A streptococcal infections to become notifiable diseases

Researchers at The Kids Research Institute Australia say Group A Streptococcus should become a nationally notifiable disease in Australia.

Outcomes of rheumatic fever in Uganda: a prospective cohort study

Rheumatic heart disease is the largest contributor to cardiac-related mortality in children worldwide. Outcomes in endemic settings after its antecedent illness, acute rheumatic fever, are not well understood. We aimed to describe 3-5 year mortality, acute rheumatic fever recurrence, changes in carditis, and correlates of mortality after acute rheumatic fever. 

Acute Rheumatic Fever Diagnostic Network (ARC Network) clinical recruitment protocol

Rheumatic heart disease, a major cause of morbidity and mortality in low- and middle-income countries, results from acute rheumatic fever (ARF), for which no diagnostic test currently exists. The ARF Diagnosis Collaborative Network (ARC Network) was established to address this gap by recruiting a rigorously phenotyped, globally representative cohort of children and adolescents with ARF and controls to support biomarker discovery.

Bold bid to end rheumatic heart disease

Some of the nation’s leading medical researchers will converge on Darwin this week to step out a plan to wipe out rheumatic heart disease.

Call for urgent funding boost for RHD in Australia

There are calls for a significant and urgent injection of $40 million in funding to tackle Rheumatic Heart Disease (RHD) following Monday night’s Four Corners episode.

Excess Deaths Associated with Rheumatic Heart Disease, Australia, 2013-2017

During 2013–2017, the mortality rate ratio for rheumatic heart disease among Indigenous versus non-Indigenous persons in Australia was 15.9, reflecting health inequity. Using excess mortality methods, we found that deaths associated with rheumatic heart disease among Indigenous Australians were probably substantially undercounted, affecting accuracy of calculations based solely on Australian Bureau of Statistics data.

Research opportunities for the primordial prevention of rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease - streptococcal vaccine development: a national heart, lung and blood institute workshop report

Streptococcus pyogenes, also known as group A streptococcus (StrepA), is a bacterium that causes a range of human diseases, including pharyngitis, impetigo, invasive infections, and post-infection immune sequelae such as rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease. StrepA infections cause some of the highest burden of disease and death in mostly young populations in low-resource settings. Despite decades of effort, there is still no licensed StrepA vaccine, which if developed, could be a cost-effective way to reduce the incidence of disease.