Abstract
Infectious diseases contribute a substantial burden of ill-health in Australia’s Aboriginal children. Skin infections have been shown to be common in remote Aboriginal communities, particularly in the Northern Territory, Australia. However, primary care data on skin and other infectious diseases among Aboriginal children living in remote areas of Western Australia are limited. We conducted a retrospective review of clinic presentations of all children aged 0 to 5 years presenting to four clinics located in the Western Desert region of Western Australia between 2007 and 2012 to determine this burden at a local level. Infectious diseases accounted for almost 50% of all clinic presentations. Skin infections (sores, scabies and fungal infections) were the largest proportion (16%), with ear infections (15%) and upper respiratory infections (13%) also high. Skin infections remained high in all age groups; 72% of children presented at least once with skin infections. Scabies accounted for only 2% of all presentations, although one-quarter of children presented during the study for management of scabies. Skin sores accounted for 75% of the overall burden of skin infections. Improved public health measures targeting bacterial skin infections are needed to reduce this high burden of skin infections in Western Australia.
Highlights
The health disparities affecting Indigenous populations around the world are well documented [1]
100 children contributed an entire calendar-year in each age group and about 120 person-years were contributed to each age group and calendar year rate estimate (Table 1)
We report a high burden of primary health care presentations, in the first three years of life, amongst Aboriginal children living in remote communities in the Western Desert area of the Pilbara region, Western Australia (WA)
Summary
The health disparities affecting Indigenous populations around the world are well documented [1]. Indigenous people experience poorer health and social circumstances, which is reflected in a range of key health and wellbeing indicators when compared to non-indigenous or total population benchmarks, including life expectancy at birth, infant mortality, birth weight, child. Pediatric infectious disease clinic presentations in a remote region of Western Australia support for the project and for authors DH and RW was provided by the National Health and Medical Research Council Centre for Research Excellence in Aboriginal Health and Wellbeing (APP1000886; www.nhmrc.gov.au). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript
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