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The suboptimal sensitivity and specificity of available diagnostic methods for scabies hampers clinical management, trials of new therapies and epidemiologic studies. Additionally, parasitologic diagnosis by microscopic examination of skin scrapings requires sample collection with a sharp scalpel blade, causing discomfort to patients and difficulty in children. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based diagnostic assays, combined with non-invasive sampling methods, represent an attractive approach.
Prevalence of impetigo (skin sores) remains high in remote Australian Aboriginal communities, Fiji, and other areas of socio-economic disadvantage. Skin sore infections, driven primarily in these settings by Group A Streptococcus (GAS) contribute substantially to the disease burden in these areas. Despite this, estimates for the force of infection, infectious period and basic reproductive ratio-all necessary for the construction of dynamic transmission models-have not been obtained.
Scabies is endemic in many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, with 69% of infants infected in the first year of life.
We still do not have a RF vaccine, although the recent announcement that the Australian and New Zealand governments are jointly sponsoring a program to fast...
The median number of presentations per child in the first year of life was 21 with multiple reasons for presentation.
Providing remote communities with access to chlorinated swimming pools has been considered as a possible strategy for reducing ear and skin infection rates...
Skin infections are a significant cause of severe disease, requiring hospitalization in Western Australian children, particularly with Aboriginal children
Scabies and impetigo infections are under-recognised and hence under-treated by clinicians
The evidence derived from the review will be used to inform the development of guidelines for the management of skin infections in resource-limited settings
The benefits that swimming pools may bring to to ear and eye health in remote Aboriginal communities remains unresolved