Dianne L. Brookes

The initial coverage and impact of the pneumococcal and influenza vaccination program for at-risk Indigenous adults in Far North Queensland

Objectives: To describe the initial coverage and impact of a pneumococcal and influenza vaccination program for at‐risk Indigenous adults in Far North Queensland that formally commenced in 1996.

An assessment of the interval between booster doses of Japanese encephalitis vaccine in the Torres Strait

Objective:

Pneumococcal vaccination: an important strategy to prevent pneumonia in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island adults

Abstract: The objective of the study was to examine the appropriateness of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) recommendations concerning pneumococcal vaccination for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island adults. Laboratory surveillance of invasive pneumococcal disease identified 95 cases acquired by adults 15 years of age and over in Far North Queensland from 1992 to 1995. The most common diagnosis was pneumonia (77 per cent). Sixty–one cases (64 per cent) occurred in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island adults, who acquired the disease at a younger age (mean 40 years) than did other adults (mean 50 years). Most (93 per cent) of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island adults had at least one of the pre–existing medical conditions in the NMHRC criteria for pneumococcal vaccination. The most common was ‘alcohol abuse’ (62 per cent). Fifty–three (93 per cent) of the pneumococcal isolates from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island adults who had pre–existing conditions were serotyped. Fifty (94 per cent) belonged to types included in the currently available pneumococcal vaccine. We conclude that the NHMRC recommendations for pneumococcal vaccination are appropriate, considering the pattern of invasive pneumococcal disease that occurs in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island adults in Far North Queensland. Because pneumococcal vaccination can reduce the pneumonia–associated morbidity and premature mortality experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island adults, the vaccine should be offered routinely to those considered to be at risk, particularly young men who have recently begun to consume hazardous amounts of alcohol, and recently diagnosed diabetics.

The investigation of a 'cluster' of hepatitis B in teenagers from an indigenous community in North Queensland.

Background: In early 1999, five teenagers from the same Indigenous community were notified as having hepatitis B. Hepatitis B vaccine should have been offered to thiscohort of teenagers in a ‘catch–up’ program during the late 1980s when they were of preschool age.

Malaria and its implications for public health in Far North Queensland: a prospective study.

This prospective studys objectives were to describe the features of all episodes of malaria diagnosed in Far North Queensland (excluding the Torres Strait) and to assess how much of a threat they posed to the areas public health.

Recognising and responding to outbreaks of hepatitis A associated with child day-care centres.

Objectives: To assess the appropriateness of a protocol for recognising and responding to outbreaks of hepatitis A in child day‐care centres and to determine if measles‐mumps‐rubella (MMR) vaccine was given too soon following the administration of normal human immunoglobulin (NIGH) to young children to control the outbreaks.