Victorian COVID-19 vaccine rollout

Despite being vaccine-preventable, outbreaks of measles are currently occurring in every region of the world, with many countries reporting their first case in years. In Australia, the disease was considered eliminated in 2014, but a series of imported case alerts begs the question – do we need to be concerned?

To shed some light on the situation where we're seeing cases of measles on the rise globally, we speak with The Royal Melbourne Hospital’s Dr Katherine Gibney, an infectious diseases and public health physician, and medical epidemiologist at the Doherty Institute. 

Shownotes

A 30-fold rise of measles cases in 2023 in the WHO European Region warrants urgent action

Victorian Department of Health measles alerts

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Legionnaires’ disease made headlines in Australia at the beginning of the year due to an outbreak of the lung infection in Sydney’s city centre.

Fundamental to effective Legionnaires’ disease outbreak control is the ability to rapidly identify the environmental sources of the causative bacteria, Legionella pneumophila. Could artificial intelligence be the answer?

Dr. Andrew Buultjens is the lead author of a transformative study harnessing the power of machine learning to accurately pinpoint the origins of this bacteria.

Shownotes

Peer review article: Buultjens AH, Vandelannoote K, Mercoulia K, Ballard S, Sloggett C, Howden BP, Seemann T, Stinear TP. 0. High performance Legionella pneumophila source attribution using genomics-based machine learning classification. Appl Environ Microbiol 0:e01292-23.https://doi.org/10.1128/aem.01292-23

NSW Health Legionnaires' disease alert for Sydney CBD

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Numbers of Buruli ulcer cases have been increasing to between 200-340 cases per year since 2017, with 363 cases diagnosed in Victoria during 2023 alone. 

Mornington Peninsula resident, Ella Crofts, who contracted a Buruli ulcer at age 13 back in 2017 joins the episode with a unique story to tell.

Shownotes

Listen to our previous episode on Buruli ulcer with Professor Tim Stinear. Buruli ulcer part one: 80 year-long transmission mystery solved

Channel 9 news story featuring Ella

Beating Buruli in Victoria project

Short video on how you can protect yourself and stop the spread of Buruli ulcer, featuring Professor Tim Stinear

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The debilitating ‘flesh-eating’ infection that is Buruli ulcer has captivated Victorians in particular over the last 10 years or so, due to its increasing incidence in the state. Mosquitoes have been considered likely to be involved in transmission of the bacteria, Mycobacterium ulcerans, conclusive evidence about how humans get infected has been elusive, until now.

University of Melbourne Professor Tim Stinear, molecular microbiologist and Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Mycobacterium ulcerans at the Doherty Institute, explains the latest groundbreaking findings into the transmission of the neglected tropical skin disease.

Shownotes:

News article announcing findings: 80-year mystery solved: Mosquitoes spread flesh-eating Buruli ulcer

Peer-review article: Mee P, Buultjens A, et al. Mosquitoes provide a transmission route between possums and humans for Buruli ulcer in southeastern Australia. Nature Microbiology (2024). DOI: http://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-023-01553-1 

Article by research team: Mosquitoes can spread the flesh-eating Buruli ulcer. Here’s how you can protect yourself

WHO Collaborating Centre for Mycobacterium ulcerans website

Short video on how you can protect yourself and stop the spread of Buruli ulcer, featuring Professor Tim Stinear

Beating Buruli in Victoria project

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While much of our attention has been on COVID-19 over the last few years, another pandemic has reeked havoc on more than 200 species of wild birds. The spread of H5N1 or bird flu as its more commonly known, to migrating birds has seen substantial outbreaks occur in Europe, Asia, Africa, North America and South America. As this podcast goes to air, there’s been at least one suspected case in Antarctica.

Expert in the wild bird viruses, Dr Michelle Wille, explains why this could be catastrophic.

Show notes:

To report sick or dead birds to the Emergency animal disease watch hotline is 1800 675 888.

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Have a question or topic you'd like us to explore in a future episode? You will go in the draw to win a signed copy of Life As We Knew It. Entries close Friday, 26 January.
Contact us via email doherty-media@unimelb.edu.au 

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We're joined by multi-award winning journalists, Aisha Dow and Melissa Cunningham, to chat about their new book Life As We Knew It.

The book tells the gripping inside account of Australia’s extraordinary pandemic story. It has been described by our very own Peter Doherty as a “Terrific account of Australia’s outstanding political and public health response to COVID-19.” He says: “We all lived through it, and it’s our story”.

Aisha Dow is health editor at The Age and Melissa Cunningham is a reporter for The Sunday Age.

Shownotes

• To purchase a copy of the book, visit the publisher’s website scribepublications.com.au
• Book giveaway: We have one book to give away kindly donated by Aisha. All you have to do is suggest a topic for the podcast by emailing doherty-media@unimelb.edu.au

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In a major coup for the Doherty Institute and the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, our two COVID-19 vaccines went head to head in a Phase 1 clinical trial in 2022. The interim results have just been published in the Lancet’s eBioMedicine journal and found that both have strong potential to be an improved approach for boosting immunity to SARS-CoV-2 variants.

In this episode we unpack the interim results from the trial with Professor Terry Nolan. Terry is a paediatrician and clinical epidemiologist. He is also the Head of the Vaccine and Immunisation Research Group at the Doherty Institute and Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, which led this Phase 1 clinical trial.

Shownotes:

Publication in The Lancet’s eBioMedicine
Nolan, Terry M. et al. Interim results from a phase I randomized, placebo-controlled trial of novel SARS-CoV-2 beta variant receptor-binding domain recombinant protein and mRNA vaccines as a 4th dose booster. eBioMedicine (2023). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2023.104878

Recent article published by the Doherty Institute about the study

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Our immune system is made up of many types of cells. Many people will have heard of T cells that fight infection, but did you know there are many different subsets of T cells?

In this episode we're talking all things tissue-resident memory T cells with the author of a new study that has found new ways to remove immune cells that cause skin autoimmune diseases, like psoriasis and vitiligo, without affecting protective cells that fight infection and cancer.

Dr Simone Park is an immunologist who holds an Honorary position at the Doherty Institute after completing her PhD with Professors Thomas Ghebhardt and Laura Mackay, and is currently a Cancer Research Institute Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Her work aims to understand how the immune system responds to infection and cancer. 

Show notes:

Publication in Science
Park S, Christo S, et al. Divergent molecular networks program functionally distinct CD8+ skin resident memory T cells. Science (2023). DOI: 10.1126/science.adi8885

Recent article published by the Doherty Institute Hope for autoimmune skin disorder sufferers with new immunotherapy strategy

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Antimicrobial resistance has consistently been named by the World Health Organization as one of the top 10 global health threats, with current estimates of over 700,000 deaths per year due to antimicrobial resistance, expecting to reach 10 million by 2050.

Antimicrobials refer to a category of medicines used to prevent and treat infections in humans, animals and plants including antibiotics, antivirals, antifungals and antiparasitics. So what exactly is antimicrobial resistance? What is causing it to become increasingly worse? And what can be done to prevent it? To answer these questions we're joined by Medical Microbiologist, Dr Rod James.

Show notes:

AURA 2023: Fifth Australian report on antimicrobial use and resistance in human health released this month by the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care

National Antimicrobial Prescribing Survey (NAPS) celebrated 10 years this week

WHO Collaborating Centre for Antimicrobial Resistance located at the Doherty Institute works in the Western Pacific region to build capacity in surveillance and antimicrobial stewardship activities.

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As 2023 draws to a close, almost four years on since the first case of COVID-19 was diagnosed, we continue to see cases and have adjusted to living with COVID-19. So, is the COVID-19 pandemic officially over?

In this episode, Infectious diseases expert and Director of the Doherty Institute, Professor Sharon Lewin answers this question and fills us in on what the experts are discussing behind the scenes to prepare us for the next pandemic.

Show notes:

Cumming Global Centre for Pandemic Therapeutics Foundation Grants are open globally for applications. 

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Have a question or topic you'd like us to explore in a future episode? Contact us via email doherty-media@unimelb.edu.au

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