Search
As Head of Aboriginal Research Development at Telethon Kids, Glenn Pearson believes his work brings us closer to identifying the real and whole Australian story
Aboriginal families across Western Australia are being equipped with the knowledge to take early action against potentially life-threatening skin infections thanks to the launch of a Strong Skin phone app.
Congratulations to four outstanding early-career researchers from The Kids Research Institute Australia, who have been awarded BrightSpark Foundation fellowships and project funding for 2026.
Two Perth clinician-scientists have been recognised as national leaders in infectious disease research after being elected as Fellows of the esteemed Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences.
In 2019, the Murdoch Children's Research Institute in partnership with the Fiji Ministry of Health and Medical Services carried out an integrated mass drug administration (MDA) for the treatment of scabies and lymphatic filariasis in the Northern Division of Fiji. We conducted a retrospective micro-costing exercise focused on the cost of scabies control in order to inform budgeting and policy decision making in an endemic setting.
Rates of acute rheumatic fever, a sequelae of group A Streptococcal (GAS) infection, remain unacceptably high in Indigenous Māori and Pacific children in New Zealand. This prospective study aimed to describe GAS antibody titres in healthy children (5–14 years) by ethnicity, and to determine how paired titres vary with GAS culture positive and negative pharyngitis, and GAS skin infections.
Asha Jeffrey Bowen Cannon BA MBBS DCH FRACP PhD GAICD FAHMS OAM BSc(Hons) BBus PhD Head, Healthy Skin and ARF Prevention Health Economist
We explore the acceptability of a novel, outreached-based approach to improve primary and primordial prevention of Strep A skin sores, sore throats and acute rheumatic fever in remote Aboriginal communities. A comprehensive prevention program delivered by trained Aboriginal Community Workers was evaluated using approximately fortnightly household surveys about health and housing and clinical records.
Debbie Susan Palmer Prescott BSc BND PhD MBBS BMedSci PhD FRACP Head, Nutrition in Early Life Honorary Research Fellow debbie.palmer@uwa.edu.au
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.