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This study quantifies the short-term risk profiles of seven severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 virus (SARS-CoV-2) vaccines-Comirnaty Bivalent BA.1, Comirnaty Bivalent BA.4-5, Comirnaty XBB.1.5, Spikevax Bivalent BA.1, Spikevax Bivalent BA.4-5, Spikevax XBB.1.5 and Nuvaxovid-administered as booster doses in Australia.
In 2024, the government of Western Australia introduced 'nirsevimab', a monoclonal antibody offering protection from respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), for eligible infants. This study explores why parents of infants who were eligible to receive nirsevimab opted to decline or delay the immunisation.
The burden of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection often falls disproportionately on migrant populations within high-income countries. Differences in health literacy, language, comorbidities, and HCV genotype may influence HCV natural history.
Asymptomatic carriage of Streptococcus pyogenes (Strep A) may contribute to transmission, yet its role remains poorly understood and evidence on optimal detection methods is limited. While self-collected throat swabs are used in infectious disease surveillance, their value for identifying asymptomatic Strep A carriage in adults is uncertain. This pilot prospective cohort study, conducted at a Perth medical research institute between August and October 2024, assessed feasibility and acceptability of self-collection, with sensitivity as a secondary objective.
Disease spreading models such as the ubiquitous SIS compartmental model and its numerous variants are widely used to understand and predict the behavior of a given epidemic or information diffusion process. A common approach to imbue more realism to the spreading process is to constrain simulations to a network structure, where connected nodes update their disease state based on pairwise interactions along the edges of their local neighborhood.
High nasopharyngeal pneumococcal carriage density is associated with severe pneumonia; however, little is known about factors that affect pneumococcal carriage density including pneumococcal vaccination. We describe pneumococcal density by clinical and demographic factors, and effect of 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13) on density in Papua New Guinea (PNG), Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) and Mongolia, 3–6 years following national PCV13 introduction.
Licensed recombinant protein respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccines can prevent substantial morbidity in older adults. However, revaccination to prevent waning protection may be suboptimal, prompting the exploration of candidates for heterologous boosting. In this clinical trial of RSV vaccine-naive older adults, we evaluated SCB-1019T, a novel unadjuvanted bivalent RSV prefusion F (preF) protein vaccine stabilized via Trimer-Tag technology, in comparison to the licensed AS01E-adjuvanted RSV vaccine Arexvy.
Obesity was a risk factor for severe COVID-19 in children during early outbreaks of ancestral SARS-CoV-2 and the Delta variant. However, the relationship between obesity and COVID-19 severity during the Omicron wave remains unclear.
Gram-negative bacterial infections remain a major cause of morbidity and mortality in children and neonates globally, compounded by the rise of antimicrobial resistance. Barriers to paediatric antibiotic licencing lead to reduced availability of potentially effective agents for treatment. For children and neonates in the Oceania region, specific challenges remain including a paucity of surveillance data on local rates of antimicrobial resistance, and lack of availability of newer, more costly agents.
Antimicrobial resistance poses a significant threat to children's health, with up to 20% of 1.27 million deaths attributable to bacterial AMR annually, occurring in children <5 years. The WHO 2024 Bacterial Priority Pathogens List identifies methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium (VRE) as critical pathogens. This review examines the epidemiology, treatment recommendations, dosing strategies, efficacy, and safety data for antibiotics targeting MRSA and VRE infections in children in Oceania.