None available.

Scabies presents as an intensely pruritic rash that predominantly involves hairless and thin skin such as web spaces of the hands and skin creases. Sensitization to mite products is responsible for the itch and therefore symptom onset is usually delayed by weeks in the first infection. Secondary bacterial infection with Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus pyogenes is responsible for significant morbidity. Crusted scabies, the most severe form of scabies, presents as a hyperkeratotic rash. Lesions are loaded with mites and such patients are highly infectious. Direct skin-to-skin contact is the most important mode of transmission. Parasitological diagnosis is difficult and therefore clinical diagnosis is usually relied upon, although new diagnostic methods are under development. The most commonly used treatment of choice is topical permethrin cream applied to the whole body. Ivermectin, administered orally, is increasingly being used, including for mass drug administration.

“Drs. Genevieve Martin, Catherine Marshall, and Bart Currie from the Royal Darwin Hospital share their approach to Burkholderia pseudomallei aka melioidosis!”

"This chapter is divided into three sections. The first provides the reader with a historical perspective of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander peoples, the impact of colonisation and contemporary access to mental health care. The second section is written from a remote rural mental health nurse perspective, providing insight into some of the concerns and challenges of working in often far distant places, away from acute care services, to provide mental health care to Indigenous people within Australia. The last section comes from our colleagues in New Zealand, exploring the bi-cultural nature of mental health care in that country. This section offers insights into how care can be provided within a culturally safe and inclusive manner. " -- taken from the introduction to the chapter.

Australia is the only high income country with persisting endemic trachoma. A national control program involving mass drug administration with oral azithromycin, in place since 2006, has some characteristics which differ from programs in low income settings, particularly in regard to the use of a wider range of treatment strategies, and more regular assessments of community prevalence. We aimed to examine the association between treatment strategies and trachoma prevalence. Through the national surveillance program, annual data from 2007-2013 were collected on trachoma prevalence and treatment with oral azithromycin in children aged 5-9 years from three Australian regions with endemic trachoma. Communities were classified for each year according to one of four trachoma treatment strategies implemented (no treatment, active cases only, household and community-wide). We estimated the change in trachoma prevalence between sequential pairs of years and across multiple years according to treatment strategy using random-effects meta-analyses. Over the study period, 182 unique remote Aboriginal communities had 881 annual records of both trachoma prevalence and treatment. From the analysis of pairs of years, the greatest annual fall in trachoma prevalence was in communities implementing community-wide strategies, with yearly absolute reductions ranging from -8% (95%CI -17% to 1%) to -31% (-26% to -37%); these communities also had the highest baseline trachoma prevalence (15.4%-43.9%). Restricting analyses to communities with moderate trachoma prevalence (5-19%) at initial measurement, and comparing community trachoma prevalence from the first to the last year of available data for the community, both community-wide and more targeted treatment strategies were associated with similar absolute reductions (-11% [-8% to -13%] and -7% [-5% to -10%] respectively). Results were similar stratified by region. Consistent with previous research, community-wide administration of azithromycin reduces trachoma prevalence. Our observation that less intensive treatment with a 'household' strategy in moderate prevalence communities (5-<20%) is associated with similar reductions in prevalence over time, will require confirmation in other settings if it is to be used as a basis for changes in control strategies.

This is your first Post Basic Health Worker Course Study Book. It has been written to accompany the topics included in Unit 1 through to Unit 2.1 0f the Aboriginal Health Worker Training Programme, Post Basic Health Course, Teacher Guide - First Edition. In this book you will read about what health is and about the common needs that all humans have if they are to stay healthy.

NT Health’s data management and reporting functions are vital in ensuring generation of, and access to, the data and information that is needed for effective business management and decision making, and in maintaining compliance with Territory and National reporting obligations.

In July 2007, a cluster of meningitis cases caused by an echovirus 4 strain was detected in 1 indigenous community in the Top End of the Northern Territory of Australia. Illness was characterized by fever, vomiting, and headache. Over the next 4 months, additional cases of meningitis and the fever and vomiting syndrome emerged in other indigenous communities and subsequently in the major urban center of Darwin. We describe the epidemiology of 95 laboratory-confirmed meningitis cases and conclude that the epidemic fever and vomiting syndrome was caused by the same enterovirus. Nucleotide sequencing of the whole genome verified this enterovirus (AUS250G) as a strain of echovirus type 4. Viral protein 1 nucleotide sequencing demonstrated 96% homology with an echovirus 4 strain responsible for a large outbreak of meningitis in the Yanbian Prefecture of China in 1996.