Isolated cases? The history and historiography of Australian medical research.

For over two hundred years, Australia has been portrayed as a terminus rather than a hub for scientific exchange. Alongside narratives valorising the struggle for a distinct national identity, the motif of isolation abounds in the historiography of Australian medical research. Yet these orthodoxies are ripe for rescripting, as illustrated by a symposium held in Sydney in 2010: Isolated Cases? 100 Years of Australian Medical Research. Weaving together several historical themes from this conference with wider historiographic threads, this article questions many prevailing representations. In particular the authors argue that rather than isolation or dependency, Australian medical science has been characterised by a profound interdependence across two centuries of antipodean endeavour.

Babies and bacteria: phage typing, bacteriologists, and the birth of infection control.

During the 1950s, Staphylococcus aureus became a major source of hospital infections and death, particularly in neonates. This situation was further complicated by the fact that Staphylococcus quickly gained resistance to most antibiotics. Controlling these infections was a pressing concern for hospital workers, especially bacteriologists who tackled it through the use of a new epidemiologic tool: phage typing. This article argues that during the mid- to late 1950s a series of staphylococcal hospital and nursery epidemics united phage typers, brought international recognition to the usefulness of their technique, and, in the process, contributed to the establishment of the new field of infection control. Through the use of this new tool, phage typers established themselves as experts in infection control and, in some places, became essential members of newly formed infection-control committees. The nursery epidemics represent a particularly important test for phage typing and infection control, for this staphylococcal strain (80/81) was especially virulent and spread rapidly beyond the hospital to the wider community. The epidemiologic information provided by phage typers was vital for devising practical advice on how to control this deadly strain of Staphylococcus and also for transforming the role of the hospital bacteriologist from mere technician into infection-control expert.