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The young age of the first infection with skin sores and scabies reflects the high disease burden in these communities
Latest news & events at the Wesfarmers Centre of Vaccines & Infectious Diseases.
Researchers from the Wesfarmers Centre of Vaccines and Infectious Diseases at The Kids Research Institute Australia have shared their expertise with the community in Cockburn, covering topics ranging from respiratory disease in babies to recurring ear infections in kids.
Clinical Professor Tobias Strunk, Dr Andrew Currie and their Neonatal Infection and Immunity Team have become the newest members of the Wesfarmers Centre of Vaccines and Infectious Diseases.
Impetigo is a contagious skin disease caused by Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus pyogenes. Without treatment, impetigo may be recurrent, develop into severe disease, or have serious, life-threatening sequelae. Standard treatment consists of topical or systemic antibiotic therapy (depending on severity), however, due to antibiotic resistance some therapies are increasingly ineffective.
Asha Bowen BA MBBS DCH FRACP PhD GAICD FAHMS OAM Head, Healthy Skin and ARF Prevention Head, Healthy Skin and ARF Prevention Areas of expertise: Skin
The role Staphylococcus aureus antimicrobial resistance genes and toxins play in disease severity, management and outcome in childhood is an emerging field requiring further exploration.
Scabies is an important predisposing factor of impetigo which can lead to serious bacterial complications. Ivermectin-based mass drug administration can substantially reduce scabies and impetigo prevalence in endemic settings, but the impact on serious bacterial complications is not known.
Combination antibiotic therapy with an antitoxin agent, such as clindamycin, is included in some guidelines for severe, toxin-mediated Staphylococcus aureus infections. The evidence to support this practice is currently limited to in vitro, animal and observational human case-series data, with no previous randomized controlled trials (RCTs).
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.