Indigenous health: Menzies School of Health ResearchHealth outcomes and economic contribution to Northern Territory, Australia and Asia Pacific |
This report by Deloitte Access Economics reveals the Menzies School of Health Research, Australia’s leading indigenous health research institute, made a social and economic contribution of $393 million to the Australian economy from 2002 to 2010. For the Northern Territory alone the contribution was $87 million for the same period.
The report highlights scientific breakthroughs in regional health, including:
- 85% less deaths from the bacterial disease, melioidosis
- A joint Menzies and Royal Darwin Hospital team saw the antibiotic G-CSF added to drug options for septic shock in melioidosis sufferers. After this discovery, mortality rates dropped from 95% to 10%
- 35% fewer severe malaria deaths thanks to new drug treatment
- Menzies helped identify that the drug artesunate reduces the mortality of severe malaria by 35% compared with conventional intravenous drug quinine. This finding helped trigger changes in the WHO’s Global Malaria Treatment Guidelines
- 1 in 10 extra lives saved from Rheumatic Heart Disease in NT Aboriginal men
- The NT Rheumatic Heart Disease Control Program, instigated largely as a result of Menzies research, identified pre-existing RHD-cases so as to improve clinical care. As a result, RHD-related mortality rates in NT Aboriginal males dropped from 25.5 per 1,000 in 1987-1996 to 14.8 per 1,000 in 1997-2005.
Indigenous health: Menzies School of Health Research
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