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Review
. 2022 Aug 12;7(8):181.
doi: 10.3390/tropicalmed7080181.

Using Genomics to Understand the Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases in the Northern Territory of Australia

Ella M Meumann  1   2 , Vicki L Krause  3 , Robert Baird  4 , Bart J Currie  1   2
Affiliations
Review

Using Genomics to Understand the Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases in the Northern Territory of Australia

Ella M Meumann et al. Trop Med Infect Dis. .

Abstract

The Northern Territory (NT) is a geographically remote region of northern and central Australia. Approximately a third of the population are First Nations Australians, many of whom live in remote regions. Due to the physical environment and climate, and scale of social inequity, the rates of many infectious diseases are the highest nationally. Molecular typing and genomic sequencing in research and public health have provided considerable new knowledge on the epidemiology of infectious diseases in the NT. We review the applications of genomic sequencing technology for molecular typing, identification of transmission clusters, phylogenomics, antimicrobial resistance prediction, and pathogen detection. We provide examples where these methodologies have been applied to infectious diseases in the NT and discuss the next steps in public health implementation of this technology.

Keywords: epidemiology; genomics; infectious diseases; sequencing; tropics.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to publish the results.

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