Strep A and Skin Health in First Nations children

Posted Monday 23 December 2024 | Northern Queensland Primary Health Network

Presented by Tropical Public Health Services and Mulungu Aboriginal Corporation Primary Health Care Services, this free educational healthcare provider event will discuss skin infections of serious concern affecting First Nations children.

Untreated skin infections have the potential to lead to invasive bacterial infections, kidney disease such as acute post-streptococcal glomerulonephritis (APSGN), and chronic heart diseases such as rheumatic heart disease (RHD).

The session will engage healthcare providers in contributing to developing local new models of care that address skin health in First Nations children in the Mareeba and Tablelands region, through the introduction of the Healthy Skin project.

Guest presenter

• Prof Malcolm McDonald MBBS PhD FRACP FRCPA, Adjunct Professor - Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine (James Cook University)
  
  Malcolm McDonald MBBS PhD FRACP FRCPA has just celebrated 50 years 'in the trade'. He is a specialist physician, educator and researcher with longstanding involvement in the health of Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Island people in the Northern Territory and Far North Queensland. He has more than 40 years experience as a clinical teacher and supervisor. Over his career has worked in large Australian university teaching centres, rural health services and remote communities. He has also worked as a physician in the USA and East Africa; then with AusAID in Indonesia, PNG and the Southwest Pacific."

• Explore Mareeba’s primary health care landscape, current barriers to care for First Nation children, and local and regional health data on common skin infections.
• Identify best practice for the diagnosis and treatment of most common skin infections affecting First Nations people; impetigo, scabies, and tinea.
• Explore the links between high rates of skin infection, strep-related illnesses such as RHD and APSGN/ESRD, and the social determinants of health.
• Identify approaches to address primordial prevention of skin infections, including the Healthy Living Practices (a framework for addressing the links between housing and health for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples).

This educational activity is accredited with RACGP and ACRRM.

Please note that dinner will be provided.