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Research

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) caused by parasites of the Leishmania donovani complex can be fatal in susceptible individuals. Understanding the interactions between host and pathogen is one way to obtain leads to develop better drugs and for vaccine development. In recent years multiple omics-based approaches have assisted researchers to gain a more global picture of this interaction in leishmaniasis. Here we review results from studies using three omics-based approaches to study VL caused by L. donovani in India.

Research

The Zero Childhood Cancer Program is a precision medicine program to benefit children with poor-outcome, rare, relapsed or refractory cancer. Using tumor and germline whole genome sequencing (WGS) and RNA sequencing (RNAseq) across 252 tumors from high-risk pediatric patients with cancer, we identified 968 reportable molecular aberrations.

Research

The majority of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (hereafter referred to as “Aboriginal”) people live in urban centres. Otitis media (OM) occurs at a younger age, prevalence is higher and hearing loss and other serious complications are more common in Aboriginal than non-Aboriginal children. Despite this, data on the burden of OM and hearing loss in urban Aboriginal children are limited.

Research

Risk averse practice has dominated the child protection field for decades, with high-profile child deaths, ever-tightening surveillance, and regulation of families. In this context, the practice of social work as ‘risk work’ including the use of risk assessment tools has been subject to substantial scholarly investigation. Less attention has been paid to the community organisations that play a central role in supporting child protection-involved parents. Based on interviews with Australian community workers, we examine their negotiation of the parent support/parent risk dichotomy.

Research

Prevalence of impetigo (skin sores) remains high in remote Australian Aboriginal communities, Fiji, and other areas of socio-economic disadvantage. Skin sore infections, driven primarily in these settings by Group A Streptococcus (GAS) contribute substantially to the disease burden in these areas. Despite this, estimates for the force of infection, infectious period and basic reproductive ratio-all necessary for the construction of dynamic transmission models-have not been obtained.

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The monoclonal antibody, palivizumab is licensed for use in high-risk infants to prevent severe illness caused by respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). The level of its use and compliance with current jurisdictional guidelines which were amended in 2010, is unknown.

Research

Acute erythroleukemia (AEL or acute myeloid leukemia [AML]-M6) is a rare but aggressive hematologic malignancy. Previous studies showed that AEL leukemic cells often carry complex karyotypes and mutations in known AML-associated oncogenes.

Research

As of 1 May 2020, there had been 6808 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Australia. Of these, 98 had died from the disease. The epidemic had been in decline since mid-March, with 308 cases confirmed nationally since 14 April.

Research

The COVID-19 pandemic introduced challenges to everyone in society but particularly so to every aspect of medical practice. It is bewildering how quickly the profession has had to respond to rapidly changing clinical landscape. Our well-established methods involve collecting and analyzing data to generate an evidence base which is then disseminated and implemented into routine clinical practice.

Research

With the importance of early childhood development more recognized by the international society, low-cost and cross-culturally comparable measures of early childhood development is in great demand, both in China and worldwide. In this study, we aim to test the psychometrics of the Chinese version of The Early Human Capability Index (eHCI), which is designed as a measurement for school readiness in large population.