Community first responders: A missing key to reducing the impact of injury and illness in low- and middle-income countries in the Western Pacific?

@#This perspective article discusses the potential role community first responders could play in reducing injury and illness in low- and middle-income countries in the Western Pacific. Community first responders are reportedly making a difference in low- and middle-income countries in Asia and Africa in reducing injury and illness, and in disease surveillance and reporting. Efforts must be made to explore the appropriate and effective introduction of locally tailored community first responder programs in the Western Pacific.

Planning for and responding to pandemic influenza emergencies: it’s time to listen to, prioritize and privilege Aboriginal perspectives

@#Australia’s Indigenous peoples account for 3% of the country’s population yet continue to experience disproportionately higher rates of mortality and hospitalization for many infectious diseases.1 The 2009 influenza pandemic had an inequitable impact on Indigenous peoples in Australia,2 New Zealand,3 the Americas and the Pacific.4 Genuine and tangible actions that include Indigenous peoples in the planning and response for pandemic influenza is overdue. This paper will identify some of the strategies to incorporate the perspectives of Australia’s Indigenous peoples (hereafter Aboriginal) in planning and responding to infectious disease emergencies.

Improving ethnocultural data to inform public health responses to communicable diseases in Australia

It is well established that ethnocultural groups of migrants are associated with a differential risk of communicable disease, including measles, tuberculosis and hepatitis B. Global public health agencies1 are now focusing on improving the collection of ethnocultural data to better define communicable disease risk in migrant populations to support community-level disease prevention and control.