Search

News & Events

A new study shows that people living in the Oceania region, including Australia, have the highest risk in the world of dying from rheumatic heart disease.

News & Events

Toddlers will now get an additional whooping cough vaccine to protect them against the potentially deadly disease.

News & Events

Mapping when Respiratory Syncytal Virus (RSV) reaches its seasonal peak will assist how future vaccination programs are carried out.

The Infectious Disease Implementation Research Team is a multi-disciplinary group researching the best way to implement infectious disease prevention and treatment strategies to improve the wellbeing of children and teenagers.

Research

Vaccines have generally been developed with limited insight into their molecular impact. While systems vaccinology enables characterization of mechanisms of action, these tools have yet to be applied to infants, who are at high risk of infection and receive the most vaccines. Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) protects infants against disseminated tuberculosis (TB) and TB-unrelated infections via incompletely understood mechanisms.

Research

Group A Streptococcus causes a wide range of diseases from relatively mild infections including pharyngitis to more severe illnesses such as invasive diseases and rheumatic heart disease (RHD). Our aim is to estimate the cost-effectiveness of a hypothetical Strep A vaccine on multiple disease manifestations at the global-level.

Research

The rollout of vaccines against COVID-19 is prompting governments and the private sector to adopt mandates. However, there has been little conceptual analysis of the types of mandates available, nor empirical analysis of how the public thinks about different mandates and why. Our conceptual study examines available instruments, how they have been implemented pre-COVID, and their use for COVID-19 globally.

Research

Broad community acceptance of a COVID-19 vaccination will be critical for effectively halting the spread of the virus. In this study, we focus on factors that differentiate those who are undecided from those who are either willing or unwilling to accept a prospective COVID-19 vaccine. An online survey in May 2020 assessed Australian adults' willingness to receive a COVID-19 vaccine (yes, maybe, no). A multinomial logistical regression of responses (N = 1,313) was used to identify correlates of vaccine willingness between the three groups.

Research

Small volume assays are required for large-scale research studies and in particular paediatric trials, where multiple measures are required from a single sample. Fluorescent bead-based technology (Bioplex/Luminex) allows high through-put and simultaneous quantification of multiple analytes in a single test. This technology uses sets of microspheres, each with a unique spectral address that can be coated with a different antigen of interest.

Research

There is limited empiric evidence on the coverage of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCVs) required to generate substantial indirect protection. We investigate the association between population PCV coverage and indirect protection against invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) and pneumonia hospitalisations among undervaccinated Australian children.