Identifying Pragmatic Strategies To Prevent And Treat Enteric Infection In Indigenous Infants
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$189,384.00
Summary
Diarrhoea remains one of the commonest causes of death in young children. Most of these deaths occur in places that have limited clean water, food, and health care. Although deaths from diarrhoea are rare in Australia, Indigenous children still suffer from frequent and severe episodes of diarrhoea, much more so that than non-Indigenous infants. This research aims to reduce this suffering by finding ways to both prevent and treat diarrhoea in young children.
Some of the world's most important diseases, including important diseases of indigenous chilren and the hospitalised elderly are caused by bacteria that carry a surface coating called a capsule. It is not clear how this capsule is retained by bacteria. Resolution of this question could lead to the development of new disinfectants that will stop hospital-acquired infections, to new reagents that can be incoporated into medical devices where bacteria frequently grow, and new antibiotics.