Infectious Diseases Epidemiology

We have a particular focus on acute lower respiratory infections or chest infections which include bronchiolitis, whooping cough, pneumonia and influenza. These chest infections are a major cause of childhood morbidity with a disproportionate burden in Aboriginal children.

We are investigating the burden (in terms of hospitalisation, emergency department presentation and laboratory detection rates), risk factors, seasonal and temporal trends of respiratory infections using large-scale population-based data from administrative health datasets. These different datasets are linked together using record linkage techniques.

Linking different datasets together also allows us to look at the impact and effectiveness of childhood vaccination programs. We are currently also developing mathematical models to predict future epidemics of respiratory infections in children and understand different seasonal characteristics.

Our research interests include:

• Investigating the pathogen-specific burden of respiratory infections and enteric infections using record linkage of perinatal, hospital, emergency department, infectious disease notification and laboratory data
• Investigating the temporal and seasonal trends of respiratory infections (laboratory-confirmed or otherwise) and the impact of co-infection on clinical outcomes
• Exploring seasonality of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and other viruses through mathematical modelling
• Understanding the climatic drivers of seasonal respiratory infections
• International comparisons of the epidemiology of chest infections using data linkage across England and WA paying particular attention to hospital morbidity coding and available laboratory data for research purposes
• Measuring the use and effectiveness of palivizumab in WA to prevent RSV-associated morbidity in high risk children
• Evaluating the coverage and effectiveness of routine pediatric immunisations in a birth cohort of ~2million births in WA and NSW
• Streamlining the process of data linkage studies involving Commonwealth data to further our investigations of childhood infectious diseases

We work in close collaboration with other research teams around Australia and overseas including the Australian National University, University of New South Wales, and the University College London (UK).