Public Health

From rotavirus discovery to development of the RV3-BB vaccine to prevent rotavirus disease in babies from birth

The discovery of rotavirus as the most common cause of acute dehydrating diarrhea at the Royal Children’s Hospital and University of Melbourne in 1973 provided hope for prevention of a major cause of death in young children worldwide. Building from this discovery, MCRI researchers have dedicated 5 decades to understanding the rotavirus and to the development and implementation of rotavirus vaccines.

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To prevent the unpredictable

Mental health risk assessments have always been a challenge, even for the most experienced clinicians. Risk assessment involves understanding not just the severity of the reported symptoms but the underlying motivations and the psychosocial circumstances. 

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A call to action: the second Lancet Commission on adolescent health and wellbeing

Almost 10 years has passed since the first Lancet Commission on Adolescent Health and Wellbeing. Whilst some progress has been made, many areas of need are escaping our efforts, and much more needs to be done to ensure optimal adolescent health and wellbeing. This second Commission brought together 44 commissioners from across the globe and disciplines, including 10 youth commissioners who co-led each workstream.

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Vaccine preventable diseases in 2025: Learning from the past and looking forward

Immunisations are one of the world’s greatest public health interventions, and also one of the areas of medicine increasingly susceptible to misinformation. Independent, evidence-based scientific advice to governments and the community is crucial in informing immunisation policy and appropriate utilisation and uptake of safe and effective vaccines.

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Maternal tuberculosis and impacts on child health

Around a half of women in tuberculosis-endemic countries are infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis and over 1.7 million females of reproductive age (15-45 years) fall ill with tuberculosis (TB) each year. Pregnancy is associated with an increased risk of TB disease which has major consequences for maternal health – TB is the major non-obstetric cause of maternal mortality globally – and for the health of their baby.

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Taking a lifelong perspective on Cerebral Palsy: Challenges and opportunities

Emma Livingstone, CEO of UP – The Adult Cerebral Palsy Movement, will share insights from her lived experience and advocacy work on the evolving care and understanding of cerebral palsy (CP) across the lifespan. Her presentation will explore recent research advancements, the lifelong nature of CP, and the importance of addressing co-morbidities. She will also discuss how child practitioners can better equip children with CP for adulthood.

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An evidence-based system for early years interventions to reduce child health and developmental inequities: Insights from the interventional birth cohort study Born in Bradford’s Better Start (BiBBS)

There are real challenges in delivering equitable health care in a community, even when there is policy and service goodwill. This is an issue for health services around the world. For the past ten years BiBBS has been working alongside service partners and families to co-design, implement and evaluate multiple early years interventions that are delivered as a part of usual practice in disadvantaged inner-city areas in the UK.

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Co-designing interventions for high quality paediatric health care

Opportunities exist to leverage implementation science and quality improvement science to advance quality care. During this presentation we will compare and contrast implementation science and quality improvement science. We will explore how methods from both fields have been used to improve our understanding of discharge communication practices in emergency departments in Canada.

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