Applied epidemiology of acute rheumatic fever & curable sexually transmissible infections in the Miwatj region of East Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia.

Abstract

This thesis presents a summation of work completed during my Master of Philosophy in Applied Epidemiology (MAE) candidature. My field placement was based with Miwatj Health Aboriginal Corporation (MHAC) in the Northern Territory (NT). My work with MHAC includes a public health response to an outbreak of acute rheumatic fever (ARF) in a remote Aboriginal community, a retrospective case-case study based on the outbreak, an evaluation of the MHAC sexually transmissible infection (STI) register, and a descriptive epidemiologic analysis of curable STIs in the Miwatj region of the East Arnhem Land of the NT. In addition to these projects, five minor program requirements were also addressed. This included a literature review of ARF outbreaks in the 21st Century, a conference presentation, development of a Yolngu Matha language epidemiology resource in collaboration with linguists and translators, teaching field epidemiology and completion of applied epidemiology coursework. Chapters I and IV have been prepared as advanced manuscripts for submission to peer reviewed journals. My learnings from these projects, in compliment with the diversity of other experiences I was fortunate to have, fulfil the requirements of the MAE program. Show more