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Adolescent health: undervalued and under-invested across the globe, Harvard/MCRI study finds

Melbourne’s Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, in partnership with Harvard Medical School, has discovered that adolescent health programs across the developing world receive only a tiny share of international aid, even though young people make up 30 per cent of the population of low-income countries. Published in JAMA Network Open, researchers from the US and Australia examined how much international donors spent on youth health projects in 132 low-income countries over the 14 years from 2003 to 2015. (89 per cent of the world’s adolescents live in low and middle income countries.) Co-author University of Melbourne Prof George Patton, from MCRI’s Centre for Adolescent Health, said the research found that only 1.6 per cent of global investments in health over those 14 years were spent on projects for adolescents even though adolescents account for 12 to 13 per cent of disease burden in the developing world. “Of the little invested, most...
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Research News

Brain imaging to shed light on “loss of skills” autism

In a world-first project, a Murdoch Children’s Research Institute autism specialist will use brain imaging to better understand toddlers who show typical development before losing skills and being diagnosed with autism. MCRI researchers are running a Loss of Skills project, which seeks to explain why some children develop typically in the first two years of life, but then experience severe and rapid loss of skills, including speech, over just a few weeks. The Loss of Skills project already uses behavioural assessments, biological samples and genetic testing to make sense of this sudden skill loss, but speech pathologist and MCRI post-doctoral research fellow Veronica Rose will help introduce neuroimaging to the project. Melbourne-based autism awareness and fundraising charity BioAutism has awarded Dr Rose an Integrative Fellowship, committing $100,000 over three years so that Dr Rose can gain skills in neuroimaging from another research group led by MCRI developmental neuroscientist Dr Marc...
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Research News

Colic: which treatments work and which don’t?

Everyone has an opinion on infant colic. But what new parents really need is reassurance and facts. In the latest issue of Australian Prescriber, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute research fellow Dr Valerie Sung discusses the latest thinking on colic, one of the most common conditions experienced by babies under four months of age. While colic is considered benign and self-resolving, it can have significant impacts on the family. “Colic is one of the most common presentations to primary health care in a baby’s first months of life,” says Dr Sung who is also a Royal Children’s Hospital paediatrician. “It has adverse associations including maternal depression, child abuse and early cessation of breastfeeding.” Physiological and psychosocial factors are thought to lie behind the condition, but none are definitive according to the article. Dr Sung discusses the latest management options for colic, such as ruling out organic causes of crying, offering parents...
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Institute News

It’s time to Immunise Melbourne

North Western Melbourne Primary Health Network today launched a new campaign hoping to encourage more parents to vaccinate their babies and toddlers to help protect them and others in the community from potentially life-threatening disease. ‘It’s time to immunise Melbourne’ is directly targeted at helping parents to remember that when their babies are aged between 12 to 18-months, it’s still a vital time for them to stay on track with their immunisations. Nearly 95 per cent of parents in Melbourne’s north and west are fully immunising their newborns, but this drops to just over 90 per cent for the vaccines given between 12 to 18 months. Murdoch Children's Research Institute immunisation expert and Royal Children’s Hospital paediatrician, Dr Margie Danchin, said our busy lives make it all too easy to miss vital immunisations. “Vaccination is lower for these age groups because in the second year of life parents may be...
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Research News

Recent antibiotic use linked to thicker arteries in early childhood

Recent antibiotic use in young children may be linked to increased cardiovascular risk, according to a joint study between Utrecht Academic Medical Centre in The Netherlands and Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) in Melbourne. The researchers found that children who received antibiotics in the six months prior to having vascular measurements taken had thicker arteries than those who had not received recent antibiotics. The increase in artery thickness was greatest in those who had antibiotics most recently. The study, to be presented at the ANZ Developmental Origins of Health and Disease society conference in Sydney today, looked at 775 Dutch children followed from birth. Researchers analysed parent and GP-reported infections and antibiotic use and related these to ultrasound measurements of the child’s carotid artery in the neck at age five. These measures included the thickness of the artery wall, which predicts cardiovascular disease in adults. MCRI's Professor David Burgner, who...
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Institute News

Enter our photo competition and support MCRI!

At the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI), we want all children to live healthy and fulfilled lives. Show the world what a healthy and fulfilled life means to you and your family by entering our photo competition today . You don’t need to be a professional photographer, just have a keen eye for capturing a great moment. Use your creativity by entering your photos and you could win one of four $200 Westfield vouchers. There are four categories you can participate in to win, which relate to our purpose of children living healthy and fulfilled lives: Play time Cuddle time Family time Healthy time To enter, upload your images online between 28 June and 4 August 2018. Every photo you share can help us raise awareness about the life-saving work undertaken by our amazing researchers. For more information about the competition and to enter, go to: www.mcri.edu.au/photocomp . Thank you...
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