Community-based surveillance of severe bacterial pathogens to guide prevention and control

Better understanding of carriage will lead to more evidence-based health policy, immunisation policy and vaccine procurement decision making. 

The relationship between high carriage and disease development is not clear. It is likely dependent on the strain of pathogen being carried. A carriage survey where Māori and Pacific participants are equally represented or enriched, will clarify relationships between carriage and disease in Aotearoa New Zealand.
 
The study will also identify specific risk factors and devise possible mitigation strategies to reduce transmission. 

Sharing the results with the community could push IMD and IPD awareness to the forefront and create opportunities to increase immunisations. Understanding housing conditions or household behaviour that lessens or exasperates transmission could inform housing standards and contribute to the design of mitigation tools.

An important long-term impact of this project is the relationship formed with local Māori and Pacific communities. The goal is to empower communities, build local capability and capacity, increase public health surveillance knowledge, create a trusting approach that allows proactivity and engagement with these services to improve the health and well-being of whānau. Information could also be used at a national level to inform vaccine funding as well as identifying appropriate vaccinations and populations for inclusion in the national immunisation programme.