School of Population Health

Our Projects

1. Antimicrobial Resistance

 
image - antibiotics

Are commonly prescribed antibiotics becoming ineffective in our community?

Antimicrobial resistance has been labelled by the World Health Organization as a global threat to human health and our researchers at UNSW’s School of Public Health are responding to calls for urgent action to prevent it. Commonly prescribed antibiotics are becoming less effective in everyday populations over time.  The inappropriate prescription and use of antimicrobials, which are used to treat infections, means once treatable infections are becoming untreatable.  

See Project Details

 

2. Vaccine Preventable Disease

 
Image - Older Australian woman

Reducing the impact of vaccine preventable diseases in older Australians

Australia’s population is ageing, and with that comes an increasing burden on Australia’s health system.  Our researchers are working to combat this with strategies to improve health and prevent morbidity in older adults. Vaccine preventable diseases are responsible for substantial morbidity, mortality and health care costs in Australian adults.  However, adult vaccination is a comparatively under-researched area with many unanswered questions about who would benefit most from vaccination, and therefore what the most appropriate and cost-effective vaccination strategies are.

See Project Details

 

3.  Improving Vaccine Coverage

 
Image - people getting vaccine

Using social and behavioural insights to improve vaccine coverage in at-risk populations.

More than ninety percent of young Australians are being immunised for vaccine preventable diseases.  But the rate is much lower for refugees and migrants, older adults and other at-risk groups and our researchers are working to understand why. Immunisation is recommended throughout life to prevent vaccine-preventable diseases (VPD), VPD-associated morbidity and mortality and to prevent ongoing transmission of infections within the community.

See Project Details