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Pathology in the South Pacific
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PATHOLOGY 2011 ABSTRACT SUPPLEMENT
Pathology (2011), 43(S1)
products are usually neither developed to be appropriate for resource limitations, nor marketed in disease-endemic countries (DECs). New public funding from both philanthropic and governmental sources makes the development of technologies appropriate for DECs possible. Likewise, newly available funding from international financing agencies such as the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria (GFATM) and UNITAID have allowed the construction of aggressive programs to deliver new technologies to disease control programs. Tuberculosis diagnostics, long undervalued, have recently undergone dramatic advances, largely as the result of the funding streams mentioned above, along with the recognition that case detection remains a critical obstacle to global tuberculosis control. FIND, a public-private partnership established to meet the need for improved diagnostics for the developing world, has a deep and broad pipeline of TB diagnostics, some assays from which are already being implemented. This presentation will outline the process of public-private partnership for diagnostic development, and highlight some recent successes in developing simple and effective diagnostic assays built on sophisticated platforms.
to store, retrieve, duplicate or distribute and do not deteriorate over time. In recent years, virtual microscopy has been tested in a range of activities in pathology, including education, quality assurance, proficiency testing and secondary consults. Recently, virtual slide scanners that use oil immersion lenses have enabled the creation of high resolution virtual slides of blood and bone marrow specimens. This development has facilitated the use of virtual slides in morphology education and quality assurance in haematology. Key questions are whether virtual slides can be diagnostically equivalent to real slides, and how image quality may be standardised. Such issues will determine the extent to which virtual slides may be applied to activities such as education, quality assurance, proficiency testing, secondary consults, and primary diagnosis in haematology.
PATHOLOGY IN THE SOUTH PACIFIC
Australia has resettled refugees from around the world for over 70 years. Their countries of origin have varied greatly over that time, reflected in a change in the prevalence of various infectious diseases. Procedures for screening before and after arrival have evolved as a result. The current intake of humanitarian entrants to Australia is evenly divided between the regions of Africa, the Middle East and southern Asia. Conditions seen include latent and active tuberculosis, malaria, intestinal parasites and flukes including stronglyloidiasis and schistosomiasis, Helicobacter pylori, treponemal infections, and blood-borne viruses. Diagnostic challenges can be clinical or technical in nature, or stem from social or logistic realities. Interpretation of results, and effective communication of their implications to those affected, can present further challenges. This presentation will outline the above issues from the perspective of dealing with health issues among refugees settling in Australia.
Stephen Weinstein Pathology Queensland, Gold Coast Hospital, Qld, Australia In early October of 2010, a delegation of the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia (RCPA) visited Fiji on the invitation of the Fiji School of Medicine, to advise on the creation of a homegrown, post-graduate pathology specialty training course in Fiji, which would also serve neighbouring Pacific Islands countries. Fiji is ideally placed to be the hub of such training, having a medical school that recently celebrated its 125th anniversary, and with at least five other medical specialty training programs in place. The only other regional country to have pathology training at present is Papua New Guinea (PNG). Pathology service delivery in our neighbouring countries is a somewhat mixed bag. Some countries have their own pathologists (Fiji, PNG, Solomons, Tonga, Samoa) while others send their histology to Australia (Vanuatu, Kiribati), New Zealand (Cook Islands, Niue), or to Hawaii (some of the US affiliated countries in Micronesia). The development of pathology training in Fiji, while facing many teething problems, could hopefully provide a sustainable solution to some of the problems facing pathologists in the Pacific: staff retention, educational isolation, and dependency on metropolitan countries. It is expected that the Fiji training program will have a strong forensic component. VIRTUAL MICROSCOPY: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE Szu-Hee Lee Department of Haematology, SEALS Central, St George Hospital, NSW, Australia Virtual microscopy is a simulation of real microscopy, using virtual slides displayed on a computer screen. A virtual slide is created by capturing and assembling digital images of sequential microscopic fields, to produce a large, composite image of an area of a real glass slide. Compared to real slides, virtual slides are easy
EPIDEMIOLOGY AND DIAGNOSTIC CHALLENGES OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES IN REFUGEES Mitchell Smith NSW Refugee Health Service, Sydney, NSW, Australia
CLIMATE CHANGE AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES David Harley National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia Global climate change is now accepted as a reality by most. Impacts on human society and life are diverse. Impact on infectious disease epidemiology is likely to be significant. However, there is uncertainty and debate about the scale and timing of changes to be expected. Mechanisms by which climate change has the potential to influence the epidemiology and ecology of infectious diseases, with an emphasis on different modes of transmission, will be presented. Then the context for infectious disease epidemiology including ecological change, disease emergence, and human activities will be discussed. The difficulties inherent in determining links between climate change and infectious disease will then be considered, as will projections for the future of infectious diseases under climate change. Finally, priorities in research and response will be discussed.
Copyright © Royal College of pathologists of Australasia. Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited.
PATHOLOGY 2011 ABSTRACT SUPPLEMENT
Pathology (2011), 43(S1)
products are usually neither developed to be appropriate for resource limitations, nor marketed in disease-endemic countries (DECs). New public funding from both philanthropic and governmental sources makes the development of technologies appropriate for DECs possible. Likewise, newly available funding from international financing agencies such as the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria (GFATM) and UNITAID have allowed the construction of aggressive programs to deliver new technologies to disease control programs. Tuberculosis diagnostics, long undervalued, have recently undergone dramatic advances, largely as the result of the funding streams mentioned above, along with the recognition that case detection remains a critical obstacle to global tuberculosis control. FIND, a public-private partnership established to meet the need for improved diagnostics for the developing world, has a deep and broad pipeline of TB diagnostics, some assays from which are already being implemented. This presentation will outline the process of public-private partnership for diagnostic development, and highlight some recent successes in developing simple and effective diagnostic assays built on sophisticated platforms.
to store, retrieve, duplicate or distribute and do not deteriorate over time. In recent years, virtual microscopy has been tested in a range of activities in pathology, including education, quality assurance, proficiency testing and secondary consults. Recently, virtual slide scanners that use oil immersion lenses have enabled the creation of high resolution virtual slides of blood and bone marrow specimens. This development has facilitated the use of virtual slides in morphology education and quality assurance in haematology. Key questions are whether virtual slides can be diagnostically equivalent to real slides, and how image quality may be standardised. Such issues will determine the extent to which virtual slides may be applied to activities such as education, quality assurance, proficiency testing, secondary consults, and primary diagnosis in haematology.
PATHOLOGY IN THE SOUTH PACIFIC
Australia has resettled refugees from around the world for over 70 years. Their countries of origin have varied greatly over that time, reflected in a change in the prevalence of various infectious diseases. Procedures for screening before and after arrival have evolved as a result. The current intake of humanitarian entrants to Australia is evenly divided between the regions of Africa, the Middle East and southern Asia. Conditions seen include latent and active tuberculosis, malaria, intestinal parasites and flukes including stronglyloidiasis and schistosomiasis, Helicobacter pylori, treponemal infections, and blood-borne viruses. Diagnostic challenges can be clinical or technical in nature, or stem from social or logistic realities. Interpretation of results, and effective communication of their implications to those affected, can present further challenges. This presentation will outline the above issues from the perspective of dealing with health issues among refugees settling in Australia.
Stephen Weinstein Pathology Queensland, Gold Coast Hospital, Qld, Australia In early October of 2010, a delegation of the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia (RCPA) visited Fiji on the invitation of the Fiji School of Medicine, to advise on the creation of a homegrown, post-graduate pathology specialty training course in Fiji, which would also serve neighbouring Pacific Islands countries. Fiji is ideally placed to be the hub of such training, having a medical school that recently celebrated its 125th anniversary, and with at least five other medical specialty training programs in place. The only other regional country to have pathology training at present is Papua New Guinea (PNG). Pathology service delivery in our neighbouring countries is a somewhat mixed bag. Some countries have their own pathologists (Fiji, PNG, Solomons, Tonga, Samoa) while others send their histology to Australia (Vanuatu, Kiribati), New Zealand (Cook Islands, Niue), or to Hawaii (some of the US affiliated countries in Micronesia). The development of pathology training in Fiji, while facing many teething problems, could hopefully provide a sustainable solution to some of the problems facing pathologists in the Pacific: staff retention, educational isolation, and dependency on metropolitan countries. It is expected that the Fiji training program will have a strong forensic component. VIRTUAL MICROSCOPY: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE Szu-Hee Lee Department of Haematology, SEALS Central, St George Hospital, NSW, Australia Virtual microscopy is a simulation of real microscopy, using virtual slides displayed on a computer screen. A virtual slide is created by capturing and assembling digital images of sequential microscopic fields, to produce a large, composite image of an area of a real glass slide. Compared to real slides, virtual slides are easy
EPIDEMIOLOGY AND DIAGNOSTIC CHALLENGES OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES IN REFUGEES Mitchell Smith NSW Refugee Health Service, Sydney, NSW, Australia
CLIMATE CHANGE AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES David Harley National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia Global climate change is now accepted as a reality by most. Impacts on human society and life are diverse. Impact on infectious disease epidemiology is likely to be significant. However, there is uncertainty and debate about the scale and timing of changes to be expected. Mechanisms by which climate change has the potential to influence the epidemiology and ecology of infectious diseases, with an emphasis on different modes of transmission, will be presented. Then the context for infectious disease epidemiology including ecological change, disease emergence, and human activities will be discussed. The difficulties inherent in determining links between climate change and infectious disease will then be considered, as will projections for the future of infectious diseases under climate change. Finally, priorities in research and response will be discussed.
Copyright © Royal College of pathologists of Australasia. Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited.