The Tooth & Lung Sickness in Murri Medical Kids (TLSiMM Kids) Study is an ongoing,  prospective cohort study of urban Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander aged less than 5 years registered with Murri Medical, a not for profit, Indigenous specific, primary health care service in northern Brisbane. The primary objective of the study is to determine the incidence of acute respiratory infections in urban Indigenous children aged less than 5 years.  Secondary objectives include identifying the risk factors for acute respiratory infections, the direct and indirect costs of acute respiratory infections and to identify the upper airway bacteria and viruses prevalent in these children when they don’t have an infection and at the time of an acute respiratory infection. The full study protocol (hyperlink to- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4438337/) has been published in BMC Pediatrics.

The CRE provided project funds to support the microbiological components of the study, with all specimens being tested at the Queensland Paediatric Infectious Diseases Laboratory for 8 respiratory bacteria and 17 respiratory viruses. Over 250 nasal swabs from more than 100 children have been tested.

In this study we found

At enrolment in the study, 78% of children had at least one species of bacteria detected and 29% of children have at least one virus detected, in their nasal swabs. The aetiology of acute respiratory illness in this community was difficult to determine due to the high prevalence of multiple respiratory pathogens.

Main publications: 

J Paediatr Child Health 2017 Jul;53(7):636-643  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28436124

BMC Infect Dis 2017 Apr 4;17(1):245  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28376882