Event description
Hosted by Michael Rowland, this Q&A event will see our experts tackle your questions around the COVID-19 vaccine rollout in Australia. About this Event
What is mRNA? Why are there two vaccines on offer? What’s the difference? What does herd immunity mean? How long will the rollout take? Are the vaccines safe?
As Australia begins to rollout the COVID-19 vaccine, we are faced with an abundance of new information, technical terminology, and vaccine myths and misinformation. It can quickly become confusing and overwhelming.
The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity has been at the forefront of the COVID-19 pandemic response – clinicians treating patients in hospitals; scientists continuing to perform tests on suspected cases and viral genomic sequencing; epidemiologists working closely with the State and Commonwealth Governments on policy; and researchers working on antibody tests, treatments and a vaccine.
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Wide adoption of infant feeding guidelines calling for peanut introduction during the first year of life in Australia prompted a significant decline in child peanut allergies in that country, researchers reported.
In 2016, guidelines in Australia were changed to recommend the introduction of potentially allergic foods such as peanut butter, cooked eggs, dairy, and wheat before a baby s first birthday, regardless of food allergy risk.
As a result, peanut introduction during infancy increased three-fold, with polling conducted after the change showing close to 90% of infants in a Melbourne study exposed to peanuts in their first year of life compared with just under 30% in the years prior to the guideline change.
World-leading research institutions join forces to find better treatments for pediatric diseases
Ahead of Rare Disease Day (28 February), four leading children s research institutions on three continents are joining forces to decipher pediatric illnesses, including rare diseases, and find better treatments.
The four pediatric hospitals Boston Children s Hospital; UCL Great Ormond Street Institute for Child Health and Great Ormond Street Hospital (London); the Murdoch Children s Research Institute with The Royal Children s Hospital (Melbourne); and The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Toronto are working together to evaluate genomic data, clinical data from patients, and scientific and medical expertise to accelerate discovery and therapeutic development.
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Doctors are observing an alarming rise in Victorian children presenting to hospital emergency departments with a potentially serious respiratory illness that can cause pneumonia.
Australasian College for Emergency Medicine Victoria faculty chair Mya Cubitt said hospital clinicians were on high alert after seeing “more than winter levels” of children presenting with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
More Victorian children are presenting to hospital emergency departments with a potentially serious respiratory illness that can cause pneumonia.
Credit:Damian Shaw
In severe cases, RSV infection can spread to the lower respiratory tract, leading to pneumonia or bronchiolitis in young children by causing inflammation of the small airway passages entering the lungs. RSV is the most common cause of respiratory and breathing infections in children.
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Ahead of Rare Disease Day (28 February), four leading children s research institutions on three continents are joining forces to decipher paediatric illnesses, including rare diseases, and find better treatments.
The four paediatric hospitals Boston Children s Hospital; UCL Great Ormond Street Institute for Child Health and Great Ormond Street Hospital (London); the Murdoch Children s Research Institute with The Royal Children s Hospital (Melbourne); and The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Toronto are working together to evaluate genomic data, clinical data from patients, and scientific and medical expertise to accelerate discovery and therapeutic development.
The partnership, known as the International Precision Child Health Partnership (IPCHiP), is the first major global collaboration around genomics and child health. The founding partners anticipate that additional institutions will join the collaboration in the future.