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Group A Streptococcus (Strep A) is responsible for a significant global health and economic burden. The recent prioritization of Strep A vaccine development by the World Health Organization has prompted global research activities and collaborations. To progress this prioritization, establishment of robust surveillance for Strep A to generate updated regional disease burden estimates and to establish platforms for future impact evaluation is essential.
Recruitment in research can be challenging in Australian Aboriginal contexts. We aimed to evaluate the SToP (See, Treat, Prevent skin infections) trial recruitment approach for Aboriginal families to identify barriers and facilitators and understand the utility of the visual resource used.
Epidemiologic data on invasive group C/G Streptococcus (iGCGS) infections are sparse internationally. Linked population-level hospital, pathology, and death data were used to describe the disease burden in Western Australia, Australia, during 2000-2018 compared with that of invasive group A Streptococcus (GAS, Streptococcus pyogenes) infections.
Impetigo or skin sores are estimated to affect >162 million people worldwide. Detailed descriptions of the anatomical location of skin sores are lacking.
Achieving healthy skin requires the prevention of infectious diseases that affect the skin. Prevention activities range from environmental health improvements to address inequities in living situations, through to community-wide treatment programs to reduce transmission and improve skin health.
A high burden of bacterial skin infections is well documented in remote-living Indigenous children and young people in high-income countries.
Secondary prophylaxis to prevent rheumatic heart disease (RHD) progression, in the form of four-weekly intramuscular benzathine benzylpenicillin G (BPG) injections, has remained unchanged since 1955. Qualitative investigations into patient preference have highlighted the need for long-acting penicillins to be delivered less frequently, ideally with reduced pain.
To generate contemporary age-specific mortality rates for Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians aged <65 years who died from rheumatic heart disease between 2013 and 2017, and to ascertain the underlying causes of death of a prevalent RHD cohort aged <65 years who died during the same period.
Streptococcus pyogenes, or group A Streptococcus (GAS), infections contribute to a high burden of disease in Aboriginal Australians, causing skin infections and immune sequelae such as rheumatic heart disease. Controlling skin infections in these populations has proven difficult, with transmission dynamics being poorly understood. We aimed to identify the relative contributions of impetigo and asymptomatic throat carriage to GAS transmission.
The social determinants of health such as access to income, education, housing and healthcare, strongly shape the occurrence of acute rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease at the household, community and national levels.