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Globally, Indigenous populations have been disproportionately impacted by pandemics. In Australia, though national infection rates with COVID-19 infections in Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people were lower in the first 12 months of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was soon a greater burden in Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Island people once Omicron was circulating. Uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine was also lower among Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people.
It is unclear whether sex differences in behavior arising from birth weight (BW) are genuine because of the cross-sectional nature and potential confounding in previous studies. We aimed to test whether sex differences associated with BW phenotype were reproducible using a Mendelian randomization approach, i.e., association between polygenic score (PGS) for BW and behavior outcomes across childhood and adolescence.
Acute lower respiratory tract infection (ALRI) remains a major worldwide cause of childhood mortality, compelling innovation in prevention and treatment. Children in Papua New Guinea (PNG) experience profound morbidity from ALRI caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae. As a result of evolutionary divergence, the human PNG population exhibits profound genetic variation and diversity. To address unmet health needs of children in PNG, we tested whether genetic variants increased ALRI morbidity.
Each year, approximately 1000 children in Australia and New Zealand, aged 0–14 years, are diagnosed with cancer. Despite paediatric cancer accounting for less than 1% of all cancer cases, the impact on their families and communities is profound and disproportionate.
Testing and treating symptomatic malaria cases is crucial for case management, but it may also prevent future illness by reducing mean infection duration. Measuring the impact of effective treatment on burden and transmission via field studies or routine surveillance systems is difficult and potentially unethical. This project uses mathematical modeling to explore how increasing treatment of symptomatic cases impacts malaria prevalence and incidence.
The prevalence estimates of physical activity, sedentary behavior, and sleep (collectively known as movement behaviors) in 3- and 4-year-old children worldwide remains uncertain.
Cancer prevention and care efforts have been challenged by the COVID-19 pandemic and armed conflicts, resulting in a decline in the global Human Development Index (HDI), particularly in low- and middle-income countries. These challenges and subsequent shifts in health care priorities underscore the need to continuously monitor cancer outcome disparities and statistics globally to ensure delivery of equitable and optimal cancer prevention and care in uncertain times.
In recent years, a small number of people with rare diseases caused by unique genetic variants have been treated with therapies developed specifically for them. This pioneering field of genetic N-of-1 therapies is evolving rapidly, giving hope for the individualized treatment of people living with very rare diseases.
Improving our understanding of superficial Streptococcus pyogenes (Strep A) carriage and transmission necessitates robust sampling methods. Here, we compared the effect of storing swab samples in fridge (+4°C) and freezer (-20°C) conditions on the recovery of laboratory-cultured S. pyogenes.
Desiree Dr Jackie Susan Lisa Zenobia Silva Davis Prescott Gibson Talati MBBS, FRACP, MPH, PhD BSc (Hons), PGradDipHlthProm, PhD MBBS BMedSci PhD