Strep A carriage and infection in Fijiian schoolchildren
Doherty Department and the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory
Project leader(s): Professor Jodie McVernon
Collaborators: Murdoch Childrens Research Institute; Telethon Kids Institute; Fiji RHD Control Program; College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Fiji National University
Analysis of longitudinal data describing skin and throat Strep A infections in rural and urban Fijian schoolchildren, to understand patterns of disease transmission and their relation to previous infection exposure and immunity.
Training workshop
WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza
Project leader(s): Professor Patrick Reading
The workshop aimed to strengthen influenza-like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory infections (SARI) surveillance. The meeting was attended by laboratory representatives from the Cook Islands, Fiji, French Polynesia, Kiribati, New Caledonia, Niue, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Wallis and Futuna and Guam. Training included lectures and hands on exercises.
Reducing the impact of typhoid fever in Fiji
Strugnell group
Project leader(s): Professor Dick Strugnell
Collaborator(s): Fiji Centre for Communicable Disease Control
Funding: Coalition Against Typhoid, Bharat Biotech, QIAGEN
The Doherty Institute and MCRI (at the RCH, Melbourne) collaborate to support typhoid fever control and ultimately eradication from Fiji using a combination of epidemiology, improved diagnostics, molecular and standard epidemiology, and vaccination. The project advises the Fijian Ministry of Health and is joining with a new partner, the IVIV in Seoul, Korea to implmement a new conjugated typhoid vaccine.
Genomic epidemiology of microbial pathogens
Davies group
Project leader(s): Dr Mark Davies
WHO Collaborating Centre for Viral Hepatitis
Project leader(s): Professor Benjamin Cowie
Collaborator(s): World Health Organisation
The WHO Collaborating Centre for Viral Hepatitis performs a broad range of activities supporting national and global control of viral hepatitis, including basic research, reference virology and diagnostics, surveillance strengthening and evaluation, treatment and prevention initiatives, situational analysis, and training and regional capacity building. In addition, the Centre is active in public health policy development and assists WHO in developing and reviewing technical guidelines and operational plans across the region.
In conjunction with the designation as a WHO Regional Reference Laboratory for Hepatitis B in 2010, the Centre assists the WHO and Western Pacific Regional Office (WPRO) with advice and support for approaches to the prevention and management of viral hepatitis, and provides technical support on laboratory diagnostics.
The Centre also enables the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory (VIDRL) and the Doherty Institute to extend the scope and geographic reach of their research, training and regional capacity building activities related to viral hepatitis.