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Acute rheumatic fever (ARF) is an important cause of heart disease in Indigenous people of northern and central Australia.
In Australia, rheumatic heart disease (RHD) is almost exclusively restricted to Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander people with children being...
Globally, ARF and RHD cause more than a quarter of a million deaths and substantial disability each year.
Intramuscular (IM) injection of benzathine benzylpenicillin G (BPG) forms the cornerstone of acute rheumatic fever (ARF) and rheumatic heart disease (RHD) secondary prophylaxis. BPG is available as either a low-cost powdered formulation or a costlier pre-filled suspension. Most of the global RHD burden lies in low- and middle-income countries, which rely on the powdered formulation.
Group A Streptococcal (GAS) pharyngitis is an important precursor infection to severe complications including rheumatic fever and invasive GAS. Rapid molecular point of care testing (POCT) for GAS infection has advantages over traditional microbiological culture, especially in settings with limited or absent laboratory infrastructure and where GAS complications predominate.
Rheumatic heart disease, a major cause of morbidity and mortality in low- and middle-income countries, results from acute rheumatic fever (ARF), for which no diagnostic test currently exists. The ARF Diagnosis Collaborative Network (ARC Network) was established to address this gap by recruiting a rigorously phenotyped, globally representative cohort of children and adolescents with ARF and controls to support biomarker discovery.
This article documents the establishment of community laundries in rural/remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities between 2000-2024, with the aim to support synergistic planning, implementation and evaluation.
The prevalence of impetigo and pharyngitis - which are both superficial group A streptococcus (GAS) infections that precede acute rheumatic fever - is poorly defined. Guidelines recommend the early diagnosis of both infections to prevent ARF; however, screening to enable the concurrent detection of these infections in high-risk populations has rarely been performed.
Institute Director; Head, Strep A Translation; Co-Founder of REACH
As Head of Aboriginal Research Development at Telethon Kids, Glenn Pearson believes his work brings us closer to identifying the real and whole Australian story