Applied Epidemiology in the Tropical Top End, Northern Australia.

Abstract

I completed the Master of Philosophy in Applied Epidemiology while I continued as the Research Co-ordinator (February 2016 to June 2021), and Acting Director of Disaster Preparedness and Response, from June 2021 at the National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre (NCCTRC), Northern Territory (NT). This bound volume describes two public health issues relevant to the Top End region of the NT and the development of the Health Information and Surveillance System (HISS) for the Australian Medical Assistance Team (AUSMAT). The chapters describe the projects I completed as a requirement for this degree, the lessons learned, the skills developed and the public health implications. Chapter 1 is an introduction to my field placement, my involvement in different activities as part of the program and to the content of this thesis. In Chapter 2 I present an outbreak investigation, an increase in gastrointestinal illness at a medical clinic in the Darwin region, NT. This descriptive analysis coincided with five other gastrointestinal illness outbreaks in the Darwin region linked to Salmonella Saintpaul and a multijurisdictional outbreak of Salmonella Saintpaul. Chapter 3 describes the establishment of a Health Information and Surveillance System (HISS) for the Australian Medical Assistance Team (AUSMAT). Chapter 4 of this thesis is a combined analysis of a public health data set and epidemiological study that investigates time from injury to tertiary referral hospital and patient outcomes in the Top End region of the NT. Chapters 5 and 6 describe select AUSMAT deployments and offer broader reflections, my epidemiological learnings and my experiences with teaching epidemiology. Show more