Background: ‘Check4Strep’ is a community-based, participatory action research (PAR) pilot study in a remote Northern Territory Community. Aim: to co-design methods for studying StrepA burden and transmission that are acceptable and beneficial to community members. Better understanding of StrepA transmission pathways could inform treatment and primordial and primary ARF prevention through public health advice.
Methods: Activities are conducted according to the ‘Plan-Act-Observe-Reflect’ (PAR) cycle. Up to 80 individuals will be enrolled during community swabbing days, with detection of ~10 positive StrepA samples anticipated. Participants will be invited to consent for swabs of throat, purulent/crusted skin lesion (if present), palmar surface, nasal discharge (if present), and clothing. Swabs will be dispatched for culture and, if StrepA positive, genomic sequencing; duplicate swabs will be collected from throats for point-of-care testing (Abbott ID NOW S. pyogenes). To infer transmissibility from throat, cough samples will be obtained using an agar plate held 20cm from the mouth, plus an air sampler (Coriolis Micro AirSampler) at 250l/minute. Community researchers will complete demographic and social network surveys and co-facilitate knowledge sharing around StrepA transmission.
Results: Outcomes from implementation of the initial PAR cycle will be presented, including consultation with community members and organisations, employment of Community-based researchers, two-way information sharing about StrepA including traditional remedies, design and testing of community sample collection activities, and preliminary microbiology results.
Conclusion: ‘Check4Strep’ will demonstrate StrepA recovery rates from different sample types and achieve effective knowledge sharing and two-way capacity building about StrepA to form the basis of a longitudinal study.