In remote Australia, 45% of Aboriginal children have skin sores, the highest rate in the world. Professor Asha Bowen has generated new knowledge to improve skin health, including being first in describing the heavy burden for remote Aboriginal children. She led the first trial to show short course oral antibiotics effectiveness for treatment of skin sore in remote Australia, which changed treatment guidelines across Australia. Additionally, her work has demonstrated that skin sores contribute to rheumatic fever, thus changing the prevention paradigm in Australia and globally. Professor Bowen’s new research methodologies for remote skin health research are used globally. Professor Asha Bowen has incorporated prevention, alongside diagnosis and treatment of skin infections, in the SToP Trial, which has reduced the burden of skin infections in the Kimberley.
