Student scholarships support public health priorities

Four students enrolled with the University of Adelaide’s School of Public Health have been awarded scholarships to focus on priority health issues.

The inaugural SA Health Scholarship in Public Health is a collaboration between the Hospital Research Foundation Group, SA Health and the University, with students receiving $40,000 a year during their studies.

Professor Tracy Merlin, Head of the School of Public Health, at the University of Adelaide said each recipient will receive support from a panel of supervisors from the University and SA Health with expertise in their chosen topics.

“We welcome the recipients from the School and congratulate them on embarking on public health research which will have real benefit to our communities,” said Professor Merlin.

Christina Varghese’s project will focus on climate change and infectious diseases in Australia. It aims to understand how climate change can enhance the transmission of infectious disease and investigate how climate change could impact Ross River virus and salmonella infections, map areas where infectious disease burden is likely to be more prevalent, project future infectious disease burden in relation to climate change scenarios and examine capacity to deal with emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases.   

Marzieh Mangoli will research health promotion in culturally, linguistically diverse populations by co-designing resources which are customised for communities with culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

She will work alongside the Multicultural Communities Council of SA and SA Health to develop a culturally sensitive and strengths-based framework. 

Maria Lin’s project will focus on managing urinary tract infections (UTIs) in aged care. Data suggests there is a growing resistance to medications in aged care facilities and the project will work to ensure medications are being appropriately prescribed through developing better strategies to manage presumed cases. 

Erin Barrera will research cyanobacteria toxins in recycled water as recycled water storage lagoons are an ideal environment for cyanobacterial blooms, some of which can be toxic and cause health impacts ranging from skin irritation to liver-damage and neurotoxicity.

The aim of this project is to investigate exposures to toxic cyanobacteria within recycled water in order to expand the available database and aid health-based targets and public health policy concerning cyanobacterial toxins in recycled water.