Using Genomics to Understand the Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases in the Northern Territory of Australia.

• Published in: Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease
• Main Authors: Meumann EM, Krause VL, Baird RW, Currie BJ
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland 2022
• Subjects: Menzies; First Nations
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10137/12253; https://doi.org/10.3390/tropicalmed7080181; https://www.ezpdhcs.nt.gov.au/login?url=https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36006273

The Northern Territory (NT) is a geographically remote region of northern and central Australia. Approximately a third of the population are First Nations Australians, many of whom live in remote regions. Due to the physical environment and climate, and scale of social inequity, the rates of many infectious diseases are the highest nationally. Molecular typing and genomic sequencing in research and public health have provided considerable new knowledge on the epidemiology of infectious diseases in the NT. We review the applications of genomic sequencing technology for molecular typing, identification of transmission clusters, phylogenomics, antimicrobial resistance prediction, and pathogen detection. We provide examples where these methodologies have been applied to infectious diseases in the NT and discuss the next steps in public health implementation of this technology. Global and Tropical Health Division, Menzies School of Health Research, Charles Darwin University, Darwin 0810, Australia. Department of Infectious Diseases, Division of Medicine, Royal Darwin Hospital, Darwin 0810, Australia. Northern Territory Centre for Disease Control, Northern Territory Government, Darwin 0810, Australia. Territory Pathology, Royal Darwin Hospital, Darwin 0810, Australia.