WA researchers are making headway in the battle to eradicate strep A infections and put a halt to rheumatic heart disease.
Healthy West Australians are being recruited into a clinical trial in a bid to combat rheumatic heart disease in some of the community’s most vulnerable children.
Researchers are seeking volunteers willing to be infected with a bacterium that causes the common sore throat, in the WA-first human challenge study trying to prevent strep throat by using penicillin. While penicillin is already the gold standard treatment for strep throat, the trial will evaluate the dosage required for preventing infections to help develop better forms of the drug.
Telethon Kids Institute and Linear Clinical Research are joining forces with the University of WA and Curtin University for the clinical trial, as a part of the END Rheumatic Heart Disease program, which aims to eradicate RHD in Australia.
TKI Executive Director Professor Jonathan Carapetis said Australia had some of the world’s highest rates of the disease – occurring almost exclusively in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities – and it could result in heart failure, disability and premature death.
“This clinical trial is tackling one of the really big health problems of the world today,” Professor Carapetis said.
“About 300,000 people die of RHD every year and more than 40 million people around the world have the disease – and it all begins with a sore throat.
“In a country like Australia, RHD shouldn’t exist yet it does, taking lives and causing disability in some of our most vulnerable. This trial is a really critical step in global health control.”
Linear CEO Jayden Rogers said the trial’s aim was to find out more about the exact dose of penicillin which would protect someone from becoming infected with strep A.
“In this unique study, volunteers will be administered specific, lower-level doses of penicillin before being carefully exposed to a fixed dose of strep A to see if they develop a sore throat in a human challenge study,” Mr Rogers said.
“If people develop symptoms, a standard treatment course is initiated to effectively treat this condition. The study will then help demonstrate potential dose levels that are protective from strep throat.”
TKI researcher and infectious diseases physician Dr Thel Hla said more than 5000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, many being children, are living with RHD.
“Strep A is a type of bacteria that causes sore throats and occasionally skin infections but where there are repeated cases of infection and they are left untreated by antibiotics, the infection can progress to acute rheumatic fever which is associated with damage to kidneys, heart and neurological systems,” she said.
“As a result, heart valves can be damaged, ultimately leading to rheumatic heart disease, particularly in children. By the time they are a young adult or in their 30s or 40s, they can develop intractable heart disease and heart failure which leads to entirely preventable premature death.”
ED: The trial is taking place at the Linear Joondalup Early Phase Centre. Details at https://trials.linear.org.au/trial/sore-throat-challenge-study/