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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.
The ability for vaccines to protect against infectious diseases varies among individuals, but computational models employed to inform policy typically do not account for this variation. Here we examine this issue: we implement a model of vaccine efficacy developed in the context of SARS-CoV-2 in order to evaluate the general implications of modelling correlates of protection on the individual level.
Vaccine policy and guideline recommendations require high quality evidence. A review of the evidence quality used to inform vaccine clinical practice guidelines could help guide researchers on how to improve the design of their clinical studies to produce evidence of greater value to decision-makers.
The implications of climate change for malaria eradication this century remain poorly resolved. Many studies focus on parasite and vector ecology in isolation, neglecting the interactions between climate, malaria control and the socioeconomic environment, including disruption from extreme weather. Here we integrate 25 years of African data on climate, malaria burden and control, socioeconomic factors, and extreme weather.
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.
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.
Skin health is widely recognised as being important for overall good health and well-being, yet the burden of skin infections in remote Aboriginal communities remains high. This project aimed to explore if virtual support for skin health could be a strategy to reduce community barriers to skin health engagement.
Although benzylpenicillin (penicillin G) is listed by the World Health Organization as an Essential Medicine, dose optimization is a persistent challenge, especially for long-acting intramuscular formulations. Maintaining sustained antibiotic exposure at target concentrations is crucial for secondary chemoprophylaxis of rheumatic heart disease and treatment of syphilis.
Staphylococcus aureus bloodstream infection is traditionally treated with at least 2 weeks of intravenous antibiotics in adults, 3-7 days in children, and often longer for those with complicated disease. The current practice of treating S. aureus bacteremia with prolonged IV antibiotics (rather than oral antibiotics) is based on historical observational research and expert opinion. Prolonged IV antibiotic therapy has significant disadvantages for patients and healthcare systems, and there is growing interest in whether a switch to oral antibiotics following an initial period of IV therapy is a safe alternative for clinically stable patients.
Diagnosing urinary tract infections (UTIs) in children in the emergency department (ED) is challenging due to the variable clinical presentations and difficulties in obtaining a urine sample free from contamination.