Single-View Echocardiography by Nonexpert Practitioners to Detect Rheumatic Heart Disease: A Prospective Study of Diagnostic Accuracy.

Background: Echocardiographic screening can detect asymptomatic cases of rheumatic heart disease (RHD), facilitating access to treatment. Barriers to implementation of echocardiographic screening include the requirement for expensive equipment and expert practitioners. We aimed to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of an abbreviated echocardiographic screening protocol (single parasternal-long-axis view with a sweep of the heart) performed by briefly trained, nonexpert practitioners using handheld ultrasound devices.

Hyperendemic rheumatic heart disease in a remote Australian town identified by echocardiographic screening.

Objectives: Using echocardiographic screening, to estimate the prevalence of rheumatic heart disease (RHD) in a remote Northern Territory town.

Design: Prospective, cross-sectional echocardiographic screening study; results compared with data from the NT rheumatic heart disease register.

Setting, Participants: People aged 5-20 years living in Maningrida, West Arnhem Land (population, 2610, including 2366 Indigenous Australians), March 2018 and November 2018.

An outbreak of Salmonella Muenchen after consuming sea turtle, Northern Territory, Australia, 2017.

An outbreak of Salmonella Muenchen gastroenteritis occurred in a remote coastal Aboriginal community in the Northern Territory (NT) of Australia. There were 22 people sick (attack rate 55%); 7 had laboratory confirmed S. Muenchen infection; 2 required medical evacuation and admission to the intensive care unit (ICU).