60 results match your criteria: "The Royal Melbourne Hospital and The University of Melbourne[Affiliation]"

Article Synopsis
  • The European LeukemiaNet (ELN) previously created genetic risk classifications using data from younger adults who underwent intensive chemotherapy.
  • New research has emerged analyzing patients who receive less-intensive therapies, highlighting the need for tailored classifications.
  • This has led to a proposal for a new ELN genetic risk classification specifically designed for patients undergoing these alternative treatment options.
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Malaria is a vector-borne disease that exacts a grave toll in the Global South. The epidemiology of Plasmodium vivax, the most geographically expansive agent of human malaria, is characterised by the accrual of a reservoir of dormant parasites known as hypnozoites. Relapses, arising from hypnozoite activation events, comprise the majority of the blood-stage infection burden, with implications for the acquisition of immunity and the distribution of superinfection.

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Background: Plasmodium knowlesi is a zoonotic parasite that causes malaria in humans. The pathogen has a natural host reservoir in certain macaque species and is transmitted to humans via mosquitoes of the Anopheles Leucosphyrus Group. The risk of human P.

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Although the most recent respiratory virus pandemic was triggered by a Coronavirus, sustained and elevated prevalence of highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses able to infect mammalian hosts highlight the continued threat of pandemics of influenza A virus (IAV) to global health. Retrospective analysis of pandemic outcomes, including comparative investigation of intervention efficacy in different regions, provide important contributions to the evidence base for future pandemic planning. The swine-origin IAV pandemic of 2009 exhibited regional variation in onset, infection dynamics and annual infection attack rates (IARs).

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Updating estimates of malaria risk in response to changing land use patterns across Southeast Asia.

medRxiv

August 2023

Infectious Disease Dynamics Unit, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.

Article Synopsis
  • The zoonotic parasite causing malaria has different infection risks across Southeast Asia, influenced by environmental factors and mosquito transmission from macaque hosts.
  • A new environmental niche modeling approach was utilized to analyze 524 occurrences of the parasite, building upon data from previous studies to improve risk predictions.
  • The findings indicated that the highest risk areas are in Malaysia and Indonesia, with additional hotspots identified in the Greater Mekong Subregion, the Philippines, and Northeast India, underscoring the need for focused surveillance to aid in malaria elimination efforts.
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Human body sodium is regulated by the kidneys and extrarenal mechanisms. Stored skin and muscle tissue sodium accumulation is associated with kidney function decline, hypertension, and a pro-inflammatory and cardiovascular disease profile. In this chapter, we describe the use of sodium-hydrogen magnetic resonance imaging (Na/H MRI) to dynamically quantify tissue sodium concentration in the lower limb of humans.

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Vaccination is an important epidemic intervention strategy. However, it is generally unclear how the outcomes of different vaccine strategies change depending on population characteristics, vaccine mechanisms and allocation objective. In this paper we develop a conceptual mathematical model to simulate strategies for pre-epidemic vaccination.

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Epidemiological and clinical evidence indicates that humans infected with the 1918 pandemic H1N1 influenza virus and highly pathogenic avian H5N1 influenza viruses often displayed severe lung pathology. High viral load and extensive infiltration of macrophages are the hallmarks of highly pathogenic (HP) influenza viral infections. However, it remains unclear what biological mechanisms primarily determine the observed difference in the kinetics of viral load and macrophages between HP and low pathogenic (LP) viral infections, and how the mechanistic differences are associated with viral pathogenicity.

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Against a backdrop of widespread global transmission, a number of countries have successfully brought large outbreaks of COVID-19 under control and maintained near-elimination status. A key element of epidemic response is the tracking of disease transmissibility in near real-time. During major outbreaks, the effective reproduction number can be estimated from a time-series of case, hospitalisation or death counts.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study estimates the length of hospital stays for COVID-19 patients in New South Wales, comparing periods dominated by the Delta and Omicron variants.
  • Results showed that the mean length of stay decreased for all age groups during the mixed Omicron-Delta epidemic compared to the earlier Delta period.
  • These findings suggest that shorter hospital stays helped ease the strain on the healthcare system despite a rise in COVID-19 infections.
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Rotavirus infection is a common cause of severe diarrheal disease and a major cause of deaths and hospitalizations among young children. Incidence of rotavirus has declined globally with increasing vaccine coverage. However, it remains a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in low-income countries where vaccine access is limited and efficacy is lower.

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Background: Mucosal healing improves clinical outcomes in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and is associated with higher infliximab trough levels (ITLs). Transmural healing, assessed by intestinal ultrasound (IUS), is emerging as an objective target in Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC). This study explores the correlation between maintenance ITLs and sonographic transmural healing.

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Models of acute care for injured older patients-Australia and New Zealand practice.

Injury

January 2023

Department of Medicine and Aged Care, The Royal Melbourne Hospital and The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia; Department of Human Movement Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Healthy Longevity Program, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore; Centre for Healthy Longevity, National University Health System, Singapore.

Introduction: The epidemiology of injured patients has changed, with an increasing predominance of severe injury and deaths in older (65 years and above) patients after low falls. There is little evidence of the models of care that optimise outcomes for injured older patients. This study aims to describe clinician perspectives of existing models of acute care for injured older patients in Australia and New Zealand.

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Malaria is caused by Plasmodium parasites which are transmitted to humans by the bite of an infected Anopheles mosquito. Plasmodium vivax is distinct from other malaria species in its ability to remain dormant in the liver (as hypnozoites) and activate later to cause further infections (referred to as relapses). Mathematical models to describe the transmission dynamics of P.

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Background The effectiveness of a nurse-led in-hospital monitoring protocol with mobile ECG (iECG) was investigated for detecting atrial fibrillation in patients post-ischemic stroke or post-transient ischemic attack. The study aimed to assess the cost-effectiveness of using iECG during the initial hospital stay compared with standard 24-hour Holter monitoring. Methods and Results A Markov microsimulation model was constructed to simulate the lifetime health outcomes and costs.

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Rapid assessment of the risk of SARS-CoV-2 importation: case study and lessons learned.

Epidemics

March 2022

School of Computing and Information Systems, The University of Melbourne, Australia; Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, The Royal Melbourne Hospital and The University of Melbourne, Australia. Electronic address:

During the early stages of an emerging disease outbreak, governments are required to make critical decisions on how to respond, despite limited data being available to inform these decisions. Analytical risk assessment is a valuable approach to guide decision-making on travel restrictions and border measures during the early phase of an outbreak. Here we describe a rapid risk assessment framework that was developed in February 2020 to support time-critical decisions on the risk of SARS-CoV-2 importation into Australia.

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Deterministic epidemic models that allow for replenishment of susceptibles typically display damped oscillatory behaviour. If the population is initially fully susceptible, once an epidemic takes off a distinct trough will exist between the first and second waves of infection. Epidemic dynamics are, however, influenced by stochastic effects, particularly when the prevalence is low.

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Malaria is a mosquito-borne disease with a devastating global impact. Plasmodium vivax is a major cause of human malaria beyond sub-Saharan Africa. Relapsing infections, driven by a reservoir of liver-stage parasites known as hypnozoites, present unique challenges for the control of P.

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Severe asthma often remains uncontrolled despite effective treatments and evidence-based guidelines. A group of global experts in asthma and biologic medications from 9 countries considered the most relevant clinical variables to manage severe asthma in adult patients and guide treatment choice. The resulting recommendations address the investigation of biomarker levels (blood eosinophil count along with fractional concentration of exhaled nitric oxide [FeNO]), clinical features (oral corticosteroid [OCS] dependence, specific comorbid disease entities associated with severe type 2 asthma), and safety considerations.

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PCR testing is a crucial capability for managing disease outbreaks, but it is also a limited resource and must be used carefully to ensure the information gain from testing is valuable. Testing has two broad uses for informing public health policy, namely to track epidemic dynamics and to reduce transmission by identifying and managing cases. In this work we develop a modelling framework to examine the effects of test allocation in an epidemic, with a focus on using testing to minimise transmission.

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Morbidity and mortality rates from seasonal and pandemic influenza occur disproportionately in high-risk groups, including Indigenous people globally. Although vaccination against influenza is recommended for those most at risk, studies on immune responses elicited by seasonal vaccines in Indigenous populations are largely missing, with no data available for Indigenous Australians and only one report published on antibody responses in Indigenous Canadians. We recruited 78 Indigenous and 84 non-Indigenous Australians vaccinated with the quadrivalent influenza vaccine into the Looking into InFluenza T cell immunity - Vaccination cohort study and collected blood to define baseline, early (day 7), and memory (day 28) immune responses.

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