Applied Epidemiology in Australia
Date
2020
Authors
Garton, Linda
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My initial field placement was with the Centre for Disease Control in the Northern Territory where I was employed by the Sexual Health and Blood Borne Virus unit, as the remote sexual health program manager for the Top End from April 2013 to March 2017. I commenced the Master of Philosophy (Applied Epidemiology) program in January 2016, while employed full time in the above position. The Sexual Health and Blood Borne Virus unit are responsible for surveillance, monitoring and management of sexually transmissible infections (STI), HIV and blood borne viruses (BBV) primarily affecting vulnerable Aboriginal populations living in remote communities. A key component of my role was to work with primary health care services in adopting a sexual health quality improvement program to increase STI/BBV testing, identify and treat infections promptly, follow up sexual contacts to minimise transmission and establish systems for improving STI/BBV management. I completed two projects that met core requirement for this degree during this placement. Firstly, I took the lead role on investigating a Salmonella Saintpaul outbreak linked to ready-made meals produced by a restaurant in the Darwin urban area. Secondly, I conducted a data analysis project assessing the epidemiology of hepatitis C in the NT from 1991 to March 2016 which coincided with the introduction of direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) which can cure hepatitis C.
From March 2017 to the present, I've been employed by the Sydney local health district at RPA Sexual Health clinic. This thesis includes two projects I've completed that are relevant to this environment. The aim of the first project was to assess chlamydia and gonorrhoea positivity among sexual contacts exposed to these infections that attended publicly funded sexual health services from a variety of urban, inner regional and outer regional and remote areas. The aim of the project was to assess whether the evidence supported adopting a test-and-wait method thereby minimising antibiotic use. The second project was to evaluate the internal HIV surveillance and response system for patients diagnosed with HIV and ongoing care managed by the clinic with a key focus on the information management system used for electronic patient records. All the above projects meet the requirements of this degree.
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Thesis (MPhil)
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DOI
10.25911/Z2TC-7588