RCH paediatrician Dr Andrew Steer today received a commendation in the 2011 Premier’s Award for Health and Medical Research.

Dr Steer’s investigations into the bacteria that causes rheumatic fever, pharyngitis and impetigo, are changing policy at an international level.

The $8,000 award was presented to Dr Steer by the Premier of Victoria at Government House.

Dr Steer’s research focussed on the group A streptococcus, a bacteria that affects up to 18.1 million
people world wide, with at least 517,000 dying each year. Indigenous Australians are particularly at
risk from the disease.

According to Dr Steer, a vaccine that is effective in both resource-rich and poor countries is
desperately needed to combat the disease. However, vaccine development is only in its infancy.

Working in Fiji, Dr Steer discovered that a newly developed vaccine previously tested in the
United States and Canada would not be effective in the developing world.

His studies also revealed that the island nation had some of the highest rates of the disease in the
world, suggesting the global spread of the disease was under estimated.

However, his research found that a new vaccine under clinical trials in Australia has great potential
for use in both the developed and developing world.

Once the Australian trials have been evaluated, it is hoped that a new trial will be established in
Fiji.

These investigations into group A streptococcus are the most detailed in a developing country to
date and are of great significance to international efforts in developing a global vaccine to control
the disease.

Dr Steer’s findings, which have been published in 26 journals with nearly 300 citations, are now
informing and influencing international research initiatives and public health policy, including the
World Health Organization, the World Heart Federation and Rheumatic Heart Disease Australia.

Dr Steer is a paediatrician at The Royal Children’s Hospital. He is a Senior Research Fellow at the
Centre for International Child Health, and in 2011 was awarded a National Health and Medical
Research Council / National Heart Foundation post-doctoral fellowship. He holds honorary
positions at the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute and the Menzies School of Health Research.
He undertook his PhD at the Centre for International Child Health, Department of Paediatrics, the
University of Melbourne.

The Premier’s Award for Health and Medical Research is an initiative of the Victorian
Government and the Australian Society for Medical Research and is presented annually to an
outstanding Victorian postgraduate health or medical researcher scholar.