An update on the burden of group A streptococcal diseases in Australia and vaccine development

• 1 Wesfarmers Centre of Vaccines and Infectious Diseases, Telethon Kids Institute, Perth, WA
• 2 Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, United States of America
• 3 Perth Children’s Hospital, Perth, WA

---

• 1. May PJ, Bowen AC, Carapetis JR. The inequitable burden of group A streptococcal diseases in Indigenous Australians. Med J Aust 2016; 205: 201–203. https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2016/205/5/inequitable-burden-group-streptococcal-diseases-indigenous-australians
• 2. Wright CM, Moorin R, Pearson G, et al. Increasing incidence of invasive group A streptococcal disease in Western Australia, particularly among Indigenous people. Med J Aust 2021; 215: 36–41.
• 3. Cannon JW, Jack S, Wu Y, et al. An economic case for a vaccine to prevent group A streptococcus skin infections. Vaccine 2018; 36: 6968–6978.
• 4. Oliver J, Wilmot M, Strachan J, et al. Recent trends in invasive group A Streptococcus disease in Victoria. Commun Dis Intell (2018) 2019; 43.
• 5. Boyd R, Patel M, Currie BJ, et al. High burden of invasive group A streptococcal disease in the Northern Territory of Australia. Epidemiol Infect 2016; 144: 1018–1027.
• 6. Norton R, Smith HV, Wood N, et al. Invasive group A streptococcal disease in North Queensland (1996–2001). Indian J Med Res 2004; 119 (Suppl): 148–151.
• 7. Katzenellenbogen JM, Bond-Smith D, Seth RJ, et al. Contemporary incidence and prevalence of rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease in Australia using linked data: the case for policy change. J Am Heart Assoc 2020; 9: e016851.
• 8. Bowen AC, Mahé A, Hay RJ, et al. The global epidemiology of impetigo: a systematic review of the population prevalence of impetigo and pyoderma. PLoS One 2015; 10: e0136789.
• 9. Thomas L, Bowen AC, Tong SYC. Complicated skin and soft tissue infections in remote Indigenous communities. Intern Med J 2020; 50: 752–754.
• 10. Cannon J, Rajakaruna G, Dyer J, et al. Severe lower limb cellulitis: defining the epidemiology and risk factors for primary episodes in a population-based case–control study. Clin Microbiol Infect 2018; 24: 1089–1094.
• 11. Abdalla T, Hendrickx D, Fathima P, et al. Hospital admissions for skin infections among Western Australian children and adolescents from 1996 to 2012. PLoS One 2017; 12: e0188803.
• 12. The Australian Healthy Skin Consortium. National healthy skin guideline for the prevention, treatment and public health control of impetigo, scabies, crusted scabies and tinea for Indigenous populations and communities in Australia. 1st ed. 2018. https://infectiousdiseases.telethonkids.org.au/resources/skin-guidelines (viewed May 2021).
• 13. Carapetis JR, Jacoby P, Carville K, et al. Effectiveness of clindamycin and intravenous immunoglobulin, and risk of disease in contacts, in invasive group A streptococcal infections. Clin Infect Dis 2014; 59: 358–365.
• 14. Pickering JL, Barth DD, Bowen AC. Performance and practicality of a rapid molecular test for the diagnosis of Strep A pharyngitis in a remote Australian setting. Am J Trop Med Hyg 2020; 103: 2530–2532.
• 15. Hengel B, Causer L, Matthews S, et al. A decentralised point-of-care testing model to address inequities in the COVID-19 response. Lancet Infect Dis 2020; https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30859-8 [online ahead of print].
• 16. Sheel M, Moreland NJ, Fraser JD, Carapetis J. Development of group A streptococcal vaccines: an unmet global health need. Expert Rev Vaccines 2016; 15: 227–238.
• 17. Beaton A, Kamalembo FB, Dale J, et al. The American Heart Association’s call to action for reducing the global burden of rheumatic heart disease: a policy statement from the American Heart Association. Circulation 2020; 142: e358–e368.
• 18. Minister for Health, Minister Senior Australians and Aged Care. $35 million for vaccine to end rheumatic heart disease [media release]. 24 Feb 2019. https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/download/media/pressrel/6520148/upload_binary/6520148.pdf;fileType=application%2Fpdf#search=%22media/pressrel/6520148%22 (viewed May 2021).
• 19. Pandey M, Powell J, Calcutt A, et al. Physicochemical characterisation, immunogenicity and protective efficacy of a lead streptococcal vaccine: progress towards Phase I trial. Sci Rep 2017; 7: 13786.
• 20. Ozberk V, Reynolds S, Huo Y, et al. Prime-pull immunization with a bivalent M-protein and Spy-CEP peptide vaccine adjuvanted with CAF®01 liposomes induces both mucosal and peripheral protection from covR/S mutant Streptococcus pyogenes. mBio 2021; 12: e03537–20.
• 21. Rivera-Hernandez T, Carnathan DG, Jones S, et al. An experimental group A Streptococcus vaccine that reduces pharyngitis and tonsillitis in a nonhuman primate model. mBio 2019; 10: e00693–19.
• 22. SAVAC (The Strep A Vaccine Global Consortium). Development strategy outline. 8 May 2020. https://savac.ivi.int/documents/SAVAC%20High%20Level%20Development%20Strategy%208MAY2020.pdf (viewed May 2021)
• 23. Archer BN, Chiu CK, Jayasinghe SH, et al; Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) Meningococcal Working Party. Epidemiology of invasive meningococcal B disease in Australia, 1999–2015: priority populations for vaccination. Med J Aust 2017; 207: 382-387. https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2017/207/9/epidemiology-invasive-meningococcal-b-disease-australia-1999-2015-priority