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Prevalence and determinants of influenza vaccine coverage at tertiary pediatric hospitals

This study aimed to examine the uptake of influenza vaccination amongst a cohort of Australian children and factors associated with vaccine acceptance.

Reply to Farmakiotis et al:Typhoid fever in an inner city hospital: a 5-year retrospective review.

This paper comments on the difficulty diagnosing typhoid and other infections causing severe diarrhoea, especially in regions where it is a common problem...

Waning vaccine immunity in teenagers primed with whole cell and acellular pertussis vaccine: Recent epidemiology

The recent epidemics of pertussis (whooping cough) in parts of the USA and Australia have led to the largest numbers of annual cases reported in over half a...

Effectiveness of Palivizumab in Preventing RSV Hospitalization in High Risk Children: A Real-World Perspective

This review supports the recommended use of palivizumab for reducing RSV-associated hospitalisation rates in premature babies born at gestational age <33 weeks.

Advancing the management and control of typhoid fever: a review of the historical role of human challenge studies

Improved understanding of Salmonella Typhi infection can help accelerate the development of improved vaccines and diagnostic tests necessary for disease control

The interaction between respiratory viruses and pathogenic bacteria

Data on asymptomatic identification rates of respiratory viruses are limited, particularly in Indigenous populations, who suffer a high burden of OM.

Evaluating the impact of the ‘Blow, Breathe, Cough’ health promotion intervention in resolving otitis media with effusion in children: An adaptive randomized-controlled trial protocol

Otitis media with effusion (OME) affects hearing, speech development, and quality of life (QoL) in children. The 'Blow, Breathe, Cough' (BBC) intervention promotes nasal, respiratory, and middle ear clearance through nose blowing, deep breathing, coughing, and hand hygiene. It shows promise in resolving OME but lacks randomized-controlled trial (RCT) evaluation. This paper presents a RCT protocol evaluating BBC's effect on OME resolution, hearing, speech, and QoL in children aged two to seven years.

Prevention of rheumatic heart disease in New Zealand: High-dose subcutaneous benzathine penicillin is cost-saving compared with traditional intramuscular injections

Acute rheumatic fever is a preventable condition that can lead to chronic illness and early death. Standard prevention with 4-weekly intramuscular (IM) benzathine penicillin G (BPG) injections for ≥10 years may be associated with poor adherence. High-dose 10-weekly subcutaneous penicillin injections (SCIP) may improve adherence by reducing injection frequency.

Inferring temporal trends of multiple pathogens, variants, subtypes or serotypes from routine surveillance data

Estimating the temporal trends in infectious disease activity is crucial for monitoring disease spread and the impact of interventions. Surveillance indicators routinely collected to monitor these trends are often a composite of multiple pathogens. For example, "influenza-like illness"-routinely monitored as a proxy for influenza infections-is a symptom definition that could be caused by a wide range of pathogens, including multiple subtypes of influenza, SARS-CoV-2, and RSV.

The AuTOMATIC trial: a multicentre digitally-automated, Bayesian, adaptive, parallel, factorial randomised controlled trial of SMS reminders for childhood vaccination

The estimated effectiveness of SMS (short message service) reminders for improving childhood vaccine coverage and timeliness has varied in previous studies. The observed heterogeneity in effectiveness may be explained in part by variation in reminder content or timing of the reminder relative to the vaccine schedule date. We sought to evaluate the effectiveness of a range of SMS reminders of varied content and timing for improving on-time childhood vaccination.