Transcript
DIANNE SIKA-PAOTONU - What it is we are trying to do is generate a new type of penicillin that would be given to those who have had rheumatic fever once, so they would then be given monthly injections of a type of penicillin known as Benzathine Penicillin G (BPG) and what this does is that it stops someone from then getting an infection caused by particular bacteria known as the Group A streptococcal bacteria and this has been shown to trigger acute rheumatic fever in some people, so by giving people, often it's children and young people, a monthly injection of this type of penicillin that stops them from ever getting a group A strep infection again, which means that they don't get acute rheumatic fever and they are less likely to end up with the permanent cardiac problems or the rheumatic heart disease.
SELA JANE HOPGOOD - Is there a reason why Pacific and Maori have high rates of getting rheumatic fever?
DSP - Well the numbers are pretty clear that we do have high rates in our Pacific and our Maori children and teenagers, but even within that age group between the ages of 5 to 19, that's beyond more likely to end up with acute rheumatic fever, so there is a lot of work going on now to try and find out why it is that we have particularly high rates in our Maori and Pacific children and there are concerns around ensuring that we have proper access to housing, so that if someone has a group A strep infection that that doesn't spread and lead to acute rheumatic fever, but equally so there's also work being done to determine whether or not some people are simply just pre-disposed or more likely to end up with acute rheumatic fever.
SJH - So will this research also look into how often those who have rheumatic fever get this injection?
DSP - Yeah because the injection is given once a month, so we've to ensure that there's enough penicillin in the body to fight off any potential group A bacterial infections and so previously it was thought that it was only throat infections that could cause acute rheumatic fever, but now there's emerging evidence to show that even skin infections that are caused by group A strep can potentially lead to acute rheumatic fever, so there are still quite a lot of unknowns around the process, but nevertheless we are doing what we can to try and make things better for our children and our teenagers who have to take this penicillin.
SJH - How does this research differ from previous or initial studies on rheumatic fever and its treatment?
DSP - Some of the initial, but very important work was done back in the 1950s where they were looking to see how this type of penicillin would work in humans, so they administered these BPG injections to soldiers, so they were military men aged between 18 and 24 and they were all white and none of them had rheumatic fever and they were all fit and healthy, so the information that was obtained from that early work was then extended in a way and then used to help inform and determine how we use penicillin today and often very different population groups. The way in which this study is different is that we are essentially looking to replicate some of that work, but this time we're actually looking to see how penicillin works in children and young people who actually have had rheumatic fever and some of whom might not be as fit and healthy as these young soldiers were, so in other words we're trying to paint some more information around how penicillin could work given that I'm sure you can appreciate that there can be quite considerable human variabilities between people in terms of how their bodies handle particular drugs and so in light of that knowledge, we'd like to be able to provide some better information around penicillin because it works really well.
