Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences recognises Professor Catriona Bradshaw

AAHMS video (0:29min)

Congratulations to Professor Catriona Bradshaw who has been elected as new Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences (AAHMS), the nation’s learned academy for the most influential experts in health and medicine. 

Professor Catriona Bradshaw is a clinician-researcher and Head of Research Translation and Mentorship and Genital Microbiota and Mycoplasma Group Lead at the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre and holds an honorary appointment at the University of Melbourne.  Catriona is an NHMRC Leadership Fellow, a centre head for the Centre to Impact Antimicrobial Resistance at Monash University, and a co-director of the ARC Research Hub to Combat Antimicrobial Resistance. Catriona is a member of national and international STI guideline committees, a board member of the International Society for STD Research, a technical advisor for the World Health Organisation, a past recipient of the L'Oréal-UNESCO Women in Science Award in 2007 and of the Eureka Prize for Infectious Diseases Research in 2022.

Find out more about Professor Catriona Bradshaw.

See all recent AAHMS Fellows HERE.

Congratulations to MSHC team on their Eureka Prize win

The team at the awards ceremony. L-R: Prof Christopher Fairley AO,
Prof Deborah Williamson, Prof Catriona Bradshaw, Prof Jane Hocking,
A/Prof Eric Chow, Prof Marcus Chen

Congratulations to Monash University’s Associate Professor Eric Chow, Professors Christopher Fairley AO, Catriona Bradshaw and Marcus Chen together with University of Melbourne's Professors Jane Hocking and Deborah Williamson, who have won a prestigious Eureka Prize for their important work on sexual health.

They were awarded the Australian Infectious Disease Research Centre Eureka Prize for Infectious Diseases Research at a ceremony in Sydney.

See their video and read faculty story.

Wins for the work and innovations of sexual health researchers

The MSHC team members L-R: Prof Kit Fairley, A/Prof Eric Chow,
Prof Marcus Chen, Prof Catriona Bradshaw; lower row L-R:
A/Prof Lei Zhang, Prof Deborah Williamson, Prof Jane Hocking

Melbourne Sexual Health Centre researchers won individual and team awards at the 2021 Joint Australasian Sexual Health + HIV&AIDS Conference.

Congratulations to Associate Professor Eric Chow  for winning the Best Poster Award at the Sexual Health+HIV&AIDS conference! His poster is about spatial mapping of gonorrhoea notifications by sexual practice in Victoria.

Congratulations also to the team at Melbourne Sexual Health Centre (MSHC), as part of the Melbourne Collaborative Group, which has won the 2021 Australasian Sexual and Reproductive Health Alliance Innovation Award. See detail below.

Screening warning over stubborn STI

Expanding screening could build resistance to antibiotics: Study

New research from the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre has revealed that screening asymptomatic patients for Mycoplasma genitalium (MG) could be counterproductive to controlling the infection in men who have sex with men.

Sexual health physician and Monash University Associate Professor Jason Ong said the study, conducted with international experts in MG research, showed that expanding screening from the current recommendation of only testing MG among symptomatic men who have sex with men, could build resistance to antibiotics.

Congratulations to our promoted researchers!

L-R top row: Catriona Bradshaw, Kate Hoy, Trish Peel, Caroline
Gurvich. L-R bottom row: Joe Doyle, Lenka Vodstrcil, Jason Ong, 
Gemma Sharp

Eight Central Clinical School researchers have recently been promoted! Well done to all of them for their outstanding efforts in their respective fields.

Professor (Level E): Catriona Bradshaw (Melbourne Sexual Health Centre (MSHC)) and Kate Hoy (Department of Psychiatry, aka MAPrc)

Associate Professor (Level D): Trish Peel and Joe Doyle (both Department of Infectious Diseases), and Caroline Gurvich (Department of Psychiatry)

Senior Lecturer (Level C): Lenka Vodstrcil & Jason Ong (both MSHC), Gemma Sharp (Department of Psychiatry)

Funds a welcome boost to sexual disease research

L-R: Dr Eric Chow, Prof Christopher Fairley and Dr Catriona Bradshaw
have won NHMRC grants for research programs to control STIs.
Prof Fairley is giving a public lecture on 17 Oct - all welcome! RSVP

by Anne Crawford

Central Clinical School researchers at the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre (MSHC) have been awarded more than $6 million in the latest round of NHMRC grants – funds that will go towards researching programs urgently needed to fight rising levels of sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

Professor of Public Health at Monash University, Professor Christopher Fairley AO said rates of STIs such as syphilis and gonorrhoea in Victoria had risen relentlessly over the past 20 years.

Study suggests ‘stealthing’ – non-consensual condom removal – a common practice

by Anne Crawford

A Monash University researcher has conducted the first study globally into the prevalence of ‘stealthing’ or non-consensual condom removal, finding that one in three women, and one in five men who have sex with men (MSM) have been subjected to it.

Stealthing can lead to unwanted pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections (STI) including HIV, and to emotional distress.

The Melbourne Sexual Health Centre’s Rosie Latimer became interested in the phenomenon after an article about it appeared in the Columbia Journal of Gender and Law in April 2017. The article, by Yale Law School graduate Alexandra Brodsky and based on anecdotal evidence, attracted international attention. It raised the question of whether stealthing should be considered sexual assault.

Rise in gonorrhoea infection in women linked to overseas travel.

A recent study led by the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre has explored the unexplained increase in gonorrhoea cases among females in Australian major cities. In 2018, the Kirby Institute for infection and immunity in society reported that there was a 56% increase in women with the infection between 2013 and 2017. Analysis of 13,843 patient records attending the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre between January 2008 and March 2015 highlighted a four-fold increase, similar to the rise in
gonorrhoea that has been reported among the MSM (Men who have Sex with Men) population in Australia.

In the multivariable analysis, there was no link between gonorrhoea positivity and age, country of birth, number of male partners, condomless sex, or drug use behaviours, suggesting another cause for the increase.

Recurrent bacterial vaginosis - a female perspective

By Dr Jodie Abramovitch

Dr Jade Bilardi - first author of the BV study

The most common vaginal infection of women of reproductive age is bacterial vaginosis (BV). BV is characterised by an imbalance of natural vaginal bacteria species leading to symptoms such as abnormal odour and discharge. It has more seriously been associated with an increased incidence of miscarriage, premature birth, HIV and a higher risk of acquiring a sexually transmitted infection.

The cause of BV and the way it is transmitted from person to person are not well understood. However, there is increasing evidence BV may be sexually transmitted. Current treatment and patient management is suboptimal, leading to a high recurrence rate among affected women.

CCS awards 'Near Miss' funding to Kate Hoy, Catriona Bradshaw and Margaret Hibbs

Dr Kate Hoy

Dr Margaret Hibbs

Dr Catriona Bradshaw

The CCS has expanded its near miss funding program this year to provide additional support to investigators affected by the tightening of NHMRC purse strings. Three grants that all scored Category 5 quartile 4 and participated in the CCS review process will be awarded $100,000 each. Congratulations to our awardees this year, Dr Kate Hoy (MAPRc), Dr Catriona Bradshaw (Melbourne Sexual Health) and Dr Margaret Hibbs (Immunology).