Acute rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease disproportionately affect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia, with devastating impacts on morbidity, mortality and community wellbeing. Research suggests that general practitioners and primary care staff perceive insurmountable barriers to improving clinical outcomes, including the need for systemic change outside their scope of practice. ...

• 1. Telethon Kids Institute
• Our research
• Reports and Findings
• 2022
• December 2022

Asha Rosemary Bowen Wyber AC R BA MBBS DCH FRACP PhD GAICD OAM MBChB MPH FRACGP PhD Head, Healthy Skin and ARF Prevention Senior Research Fellow Head, Healthy Skin and Arf Prevention Senior Research Fellow Areas of expertise: Skin infections, ...

• 1. Telethon Kids Institute
• Our research
• Reports and Findings
• 2023
• August 2023

Jonathan Carapetis AM JR AM MBBS FRACP FAFPHM PhD FAHMS Executive Director; Head, Strep A Translation; Co-Founder of REACH 08 6319 1000 contact@telethonkids.org.au Institute Director; Head, Strep A Translation; Co-Founder of REACH Professor ...

• 1. Telethon Kids Institute
• Projects

Glenn Pearson G BA (Education) PhD Candidate Director of First Nations Strategy and Leadership Director of First Nations Strategy and Leadership Area of research expertise: Aboriginal health and emotional wellbeing; Aboriginal research methodologies ...

• 1. Telethon Kids Institute
• Projects
• Past projects

The heart failure epidemic is growing and its prevention, in order to reduce associated hospital readmission rates and its clinical and economic burden, is a key issue in modern cardiovascular medicine. The present consensus document aims to provide practical evidence-based information to support the implementation of effective preventive measures. ...

• 1. Telethon Kids Institute
• Our research
• Reports and Findings
• 2022
• February 2022

It is critical that health service evaluation frameworks include Aboriginal people and their cultural worldviews from design to implementation. During a large participatory action research study, Elders, service leaders and Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal researchers co-designed evaluation tools to test the efficacy of a previously co-designed engagement framework. Through a series of co-design workshops, tools were built using innovative collaborative processes that foregrounded Aboriginal worldviews. ...

• 1. Telethon Kids Institute
• Our research
• Reports and Findings
• 2021
• August 2021

Research and research funding must be independent of the tobacco industry, which continues to cause so much suffering ...

• 1. Telethon Kids Institute
• Our research
• Reports and Findings
• 2018
• December 2018

Streptococcus pyogenes, also known as group A streptococcus (StrepA), is a bacterium that causes a range of human diseases, including pharyngitis, impetigo, invasive infections, and post-infection immune sequelae such as rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease. StrepA infections cause some of the highest burden of disease and death in mostly young populations in low-resource settings. Despite decades of effort, there is still no licensed StrepA vaccine, which if developed, could be a cost-effective way to reduce the incidence of disease.  ...

• 1. Telethon Kids Institute
• Our research
• Reports and Findings
• 2023
• December 2023

Acute rheumatic fever (ARF) is an abnormal immune reaction following Streptococcus pyogenes (Strep A) infection of the throat, and likely the skin. Primary prevention is the prompt and appropriate antibiotic treatment of Strep A infection, and it can reduce the risk of developing ARF and subsequent rheumatic heart disease. ...

• 1. Telethon Kids Institute
• Our research
• Reports and Findings
• 2021
• May 2021

Valvular heart disease is a major contributor to loss of physical function, quality of life and longevity. The epidemiology of VHD varies substantially around the world, with a predominance of functional and degenerative disease in high-income countries, and a predominance of rheumatic heart disease in low-income and middle-income countries. Reflecting this distribution, rheumatic heart disease remains by far the most common manifestation of VHD worldwide and affects approximately 41 million people. ...

• 1. Telethon Kids Institute
• Our research
• Reports and Findings
• 2021
• June 2021

Rates of acute rheumatic fever, a sequelae of group A Streptococcal (GAS) infection, remain unacceptably high in Indigenous Māori and Pacific children in New Zealand. This prospective study aimed to describe GAS antibody titres in healthy children (5–14 years) by ethnicity, and to determine how paired titres vary with GAS culture positive and negative pharyngitis, and GAS skin infections. ...

• 1. Telethon Kids Institute
• Our research
• Reports and Findings
• 2021
• October 2021

Streptococcus pyogenes is a leading cause of infection-related morbidity and mortality. A reinvigorated vaccine development effort calls for new clinically relevant human S pyogenes experimental infection models to support proof of concept evaluation of candidate vaccines. We describe the initial Controlled Human Infection for Vaccination Against S pyogenes (CHIVAS-M75) study, in which we aimed to identify a dose of emm75 S pyogenes that causes acute pharyngitis in at least 60% of volunteers when applied to the pharynx by swab. ...

• 1. Telethon Kids Institute
• Our research
• Reports and Findings
• 2021
• April 2021