The skin is the body’s largest and only externally visible organ.
The skin protects the inner workings of the body, and so healthy skin is essential for maintaining overall health and well-being. Itchy skin infections such as scabies, tinea and headlice and eczema can cause breaks in the skin, facilitating the entry of Streptococcus pyogenes (Strep A) and Staphylococcus aureus bacteria and development of skin sores and boils.
Current research shows skin infections affect more than 162 million children around the world at any one time, with the highest numbers in the Pacific, Asia, and Africa. In Australia, nearly half of remote living Aboriginal children experience a skin sore at any one time, by far the highest rate in the world. We are working to better understand how much of a problem skin sores are for urban living Aboriginal children.
Skin infections can cause shame and stigma, loss of sleep, poor concentration at school, cross-infection with friends and family, and serious downstream health consequences including: sepsis, bone and joint infections, Acute Rheumatic Fever (ARF), Rheumatic Heart Disease (RHD) and Acute post-streptococcal glomerulonephritis (APSGN).
A big part of the problem is that amongst competing priorities, skin infections often aren’t recognised and are commonly left untreated. Whilst skin infections are so common, their importance to overall health has been forgotten.
The Healthy Skin and ARF Prevention team is one of five teams in the END RHD program working across all aspects of RHD prevention. The Healthy Skin and ARF Prevention Team have a focus on primary prevention of RHD through programmatic and community-driven approaches to healthy skin, improved detection of sore throats and other aspects of primordial and primary prevention. When these don’t work, we lead hospital based clinical trials to improve treatment outcomes for kids.
National Healthy Skin Guideline
National Healthy Skin Guideline is designed to help health care providers easily recognise, diagnose, and treat skin infections using online resources such as photographs, learning tools and an interactive questionnaire. The Guideline also provides plenty of information on how to stop the spread of germs and keep skin strong and healthy.
Learn more about the National Healthy Skin GuidelineHealthy Skin Resource
Our team has worked alongside Elder Researchers and community members from across WA to bring together a suite of Healthy Skin resources that are both culturally and geographically appropriate. These resources include health promotion books that incorporate traditional language and medicine, music videos, clinical factsheets, and guidelines.
Learn more about the Healthy Skin Resource HubNgangk Ngabala Ngoonda (Sun Safety)
The Ngangk Ngabala Ngoonda (Sun Safety) project aims to address an urgent health issue and knowledge gap by generating a greater understanding of the barriers to sun protective behaviours and skin cancer prevention among Aboriginal CYP and their families in WA.
December 2024
Future projects
Figure 1. Project timeline for the Healthy Skin and ARF Prevention team. Project titles aligned with their corresponding stage of the Aboriginal Research Standard Process outlined in the Guidelines for the Standards for the Conduct of Aboriginal Health Research. Projects are separated into Kimberly region and Metro region. As of August 2024.
Current Projects
Koolungar (Children) Moorditj (Strong) Healthy Skin
The Koolungar (children) Moorditj (strong) Healthy Skin project is the first ever co-designed research-service Australian study to describe skin health in urban-living Aboriginal koolungar.
See, Treat, Prevent Skin Sores and Scabies (SToP) Trial
Healthy skin is important for maintaining overall health and wellbeing. Some skin infections, if untreated, can lead to serious downstream health complications such as heart disease, kidney disease, or sepsis.
SNAP-PY
There are an estimated 5000 episodes per year of bloodstream infections due to Staphylococcus aureus (golden staph) in Australia and an associated mortality of 20%. Despite this, there is little clinical trials evidence to guide best management.
October 2023
Team leader
BA MBBS DCH FRACP PhD GAICD FAHMS OAM
Head, Healthy Skin and ARF Prevention
Team members (22)
BSc Dip Gov
B.Biomed (Hons)
MBBS (hon) DCH FACD
PhD Candidate
BBiomedSc (Honours)
PhD, FRACP, MBBS, BSc, DTM&H
Post-Doctoral Research Officer
BSc Mphil PhD
BBiomedSc
BSc (Hons), MPH, MIPH
Project Officer, Koolungar Moorditj Healthy Skin
DipSc Grad Dip Cert
BBCJ, MPH
Research Assistant and PhD Candidate
MBBS, DCH, PG DipPID, FRACP, NHMRC Postgraduate Scholarship
Infectious Diseases Physician, Deputy Head of the Wesfarmers Centre of Vaccines and Infectious Diseases
BSc (OT)
Program Advisor, SToP Trial
MD, BPharm
Masters Research Student
BSc Biomedical Science
Senior Research Officer
Community Project Coordinator
BSc MD
Honorary Team Member
BHSc, MNutDiet
Executive Administrator
Anna Clements
Project Officer
Featured projects
See, Treat, Prevent Skin Sores and Scabies (SToP) Trial
Healthy skin is important for maintaining overall health and wellbeing. Some skin infections, if untreated, can lead to serious downstream health complications such as heart disease, kidney disease, or sepsis.
SNAP-Chat: the Staphylococcus aureus Network Adaptive Platform Trial (SNAP) - Chat
Other projects
Ngangk Ngabala Ngoonda (Sun Safety) Moorditj Marp (Strong Skin) Evaluation and development of culturally relevant healthy skin storybooks SNAP-PY Koolungar (Children) Moorditj (Strong) Healthy Skin Development of methods to rapidly track pathogen and antibiotic resistance profiles from skin sores in Northern Australia (Hot North) SITting with communities to SToP skin infections All Healthy Skin and ARF Prevention projects