Viruses and Infectious Diseases

Hundreds of children are admitted to the Royal Children’s Hospital and are treated for infectious diseases including meningococcal meningitis and septicaemia, croup, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and hepatitis. These infectious diseases can spread rapidly and in a variety of ways such as: through the air, from direct or indirect contact with another person, skin or bodily fluids such as salvia and blood, through food, as well as through poor hygiene.

However, each year the Queensland Paediatric Infectious Diseases (Qpid) research team at the Royal Children’s Hospital, which is commonly known as the ‘Bug Detectives’ are leading the way to fight against potentially life-threatening diseases children face each year.

The Royal Children’s Hospital Foundation have been running the ‘Bug Detectives’ for twelve years, and since then, the number of diagnostic tests have increased from 12 to 60 so many more life threatening bugs can now be detected and treated faster than ever before.

The Royal Children’s Hospital Foundation has provided significant funding to the “Bug Detectives” since 1997. In 2005, the Foundation committed to raising $2.2 million over five years to fund the Infectious Diseases Research Program at the Royal Children’s Hospital.

How does the Royal Children’s Hospital Foundation help?

The Royal Children’s Hospital Foundation has provided significant funding to the “Bug Detectives” since 1997. In 2005, the Foundation committed to raising $2.2 million over five years to fund the Infectious Diseases Research Program at the Royal Children’s Hospital.

Our Research Breakthroughs

With Royal Children’s Hospital Foundation funding, scientists from the Royal Children’s Hospital have developed a world-first PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test that has reduced the diagnosis time for the meningococcal disease from three days to less than one hour – precious time that could mean the difference of life or death to a family and their child.

A significant part of the lab’s work is looking at emerging viruses within the community and their impact on children. So when news first broke of the swine flu outbreak overseas in April this year, the ears of infectious disease researchers at the lab pricked up. As soon as an advisory was issued recommending all Australians returning from affected countries be screened for the virus, a team of researchers swung into action, to develop a rapid swine flu test. Within 10 short days, researchers completed their mission, creating a one-hour test that confirmed the first case of swine flu in Australia. The test was then shared with laboratories around the nation.

Researchers at the Royal Children’s Hospital were the first in Australia to identify a new respiratory virus, human metapneumovirus (hMPV). Dr Michael Nissen, RCH Director of Infectious Diseases and Dr Theo Sloots, Head of Research at Qpid, made the discovery after performing DNA tests on 328 nasal secretion samples taken from children requiring treatment for respiratory tract infections.

Results showed that up to 9% of children tested positive for hMPV, with routine laboratory tests showing negative for the other common respiratory viruses.This breakthrough means the exact cause of bronchiolitis can now be identified in an additional 9% of children. It will also assist medical practitioners with a faster, more effective diagnosis and treatment of this illness, as well as prevent unnecessary antibiotic use.

Our hope in 2009-10 and beyond is:

• put Queenslanders in a better position to combat swine flu next winter when it’s likely to re-emerge in full force, by further examining its severity and resistance to Tamiflu.
• continue unravelling the WU virus by studying how common it is in children with respiratory illnesses and how it affects them. This could lead to improved testing and diagnosis.
• continue looking for new viruses, as well as determine which common ones affecting children in the first two years of life, cause the most disease.

Read more about our infectious disesases research in our fact sheet.