The tragedy of early life ear disease and hearing loss for aboriginal communities - an update

Professor Amanda Leach is leader of the Ear Health Research Program, Child Health Division at the Menzies School of Health Research. In 2004 Amanda won a NHMRC Career Development Award and in 2011 a NHMRC Senior Research Fellowship which was awarded the Elizabeth Blackburn Fellowship for top ranking female applicant in the clinical category.

Professor Leach has 76 career publications; her 1994 PhD publication (cited by 197) described for the first time that Indigenous infants rapidly acquire multiple strains of nasopharyngeal bacterial pathogens (Streptococcus pneumoniae, non-typeable Haemophilus influenzae and Moraxella  catarrhalis) within the first weeks of life and that acquisition predicted onset of persistent otitis media (OM). This work has led to a series of eight completed and five current randomised controlled trials, microbiological studies and territory-wide surveillance to determine effective prevention and treatment strategies in these high-risk children, as well as trials in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in urban areas of NSW, Qld and the ACT. All clinical trials have been incorporated into the national otitis media guideline (Morris, Leach et al., 2010), which has informed the evidence base for policy and implementation of national clinical training and diagnostic equipment provision, and a national awareness campaign  'Care for Kids' Ears'. Prof Leach is leading a further update and App development of this Guideline for national 2017 release.