Nigel Curtis (Australia)

Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne Infectious Diseases
Professor Nigel Curtis is a paediatric infectious diseases physician and clinician scientist. He is the leader of the Infectious Diseases Research Group at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Professor of Paediatric Infectious Diseases at the University of Melbourne and Head of Infectious Diseases at The Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne. Prof Curtis did his undergraduate medical degree at the University of Cambridge and clinical training at St Mary's Medical School, University of London. He undertook his laboratory training at Imperial College London St Mary's Campus, where he completed a PhD investigating the role of bacterial superantigen toxins in Kawasaki disease and in staphylococcal and streptococcal toxic shock syndrome. His specialist training in infectious diseases included working at the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children and a Fellowship at the British Columbia Children's Hospital. He has also worked for periods in The Gambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa. Prof Curtis' research focuses on improving the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of infectious diseases in children, combining clinical research and trials with laboratory immunology studies. His current research interests focus on the innate and cellular immune response to BCG vaccine, as well as the immunodiagnosis of childhood TB (or not TB). He leads a multidisciplinary research team comprising clinicians, research nurses, laboratory scientists, PhD and other students. He is the recipient of an NHMRC Investigator Award and has been an investigator on grants totalling more than thirty-five million dollars. He has published more than 380 papers. He has been the lead investigator on numerous trials including The MIS BAIR Trial, a randomised controlled trial of neonatal BCG vaccination to investigate the immunomodulatory heterologous ('non-specific') effects of this vaccine, including its ability to prevent infections, allergic disease and asthma. He is the Chief Principal Investigator of The BRACE Trial, a randomised controlled trial of BCG vaccination to reduce the impact of COVID-19 in healthcare workers that is recruiting over 10,000 participants in three continents worldwide. You can follow his tweets at @nigeltwitt.

Author Of 3 Presentations

Topic 3 When What Looks Like Infection is Not Infection: Keynote Lecture

Date
Tue, 10.05.2022
Session Time
08:00 - 13:00
Session Type
Walter Marget Workshop
Room
MC 2 HALL
Lecture Time
08:02 - 08:50

Bill Marshall Award Lecture - To Be or Not To Be (A Clinician Scientist in Paediatric Infectious Diseases)

Date
Thu, 12.05.2022
Session Time
12:30 - 13:00
Session Type
Plenary Symposium
Room
ALEXANDRA TRIANTI HALL
Lecture Time
12:35 - 13:00

INDIVIDUALISED VANCOMYCIN DOSING IN YOUNG INFANTS: PROSPECTIVE CLINICAL VALIDATION OF A NOVEL ONLINE DOSING CALCULATOR

Date
Thu, 12.05.2022
Session Time
10:00 - 11:30
Session Type
Oral Presentations Session
Room
MC 2 HALL
Lecture Time
10:02 - 10:12

Abstract

Backgrounds:

In the majority of young infants, current empiric vancomycin dosing regimens fail to achieve the target concentrations required to treat sepsis. Individualised model-based dosing may improve attainment of therapeutic concentrations by accounting for the factors attributing to interindividual variability. This study assessed the performance of an online dosing calculator (Vanc App) based on a published pharmacokinetic model in achieving target trough vancomycin concentrations of 10 to 20 mg/L at first steady state level (24 to 48 hours) and an AUC24 between 400 and 650 mg/L.h.

Methods

Multicentre study in four Australian tertiary paediatric hospitals over a 17-month period. Infants aged between 0 to 90 days of age with suspected Gram-positive sepsis were eligible. The Vanc App was used to generate a dose based on the infant’s postmenstrual age (PMA), weight, creatinine level and target vancomycin trough concentration.

Results:

Overall, 40 young infants were enrolled, 40% female with a median weight of 2505 (range 700-4460) grams and PMA 37.4 (range 25.7-49) weeks. The median recommended vancomycin dose using Vanc App was 44.5 (range 24 to 79) mg/kg/day. All infants had trough vancomycin concentrations measured at 24 hours and 30 (75%, 95% CI 62%-88%) achieved target trough concentrations, with five each having supratherapeutic (3 between 20-25 mg/L and 2 >25 mg/L) and subtherapeutic concentrations. Target AUC24 was achieved in 32 (80%) for AUC0-24. There were no episodes of vancomycin infusion reaction or nephrotoxicity (defined as creatinine level >2 times baseline).

Conclusions/Learning Points:

Individualised vancomycin dosing using a model-based online calculator resulted in 75% and 80% of young infants achieving target trough and AUC24 targets, respectively at the first steady-state level with no significant vancomycin-related adverse effects.

Hide

Presenter of 2 Presentations

Bill Marshall Award Lecture - To Be or Not To Be (A Clinician Scientist in Paediatric Infectious Diseases)

Date
Thu, 12.05.2022
Session Time
12:30 - 13:00
Session Type
Plenary Symposium
Room
ALEXANDRA TRIANTI HALL
Lecture Time
12:35 - 13:00

Topic 3 When What Looks Like Infection is Not Infection: Keynote Lecture

Date
Tue, 10.05.2022
Session Time
08:00 - 13:00
Session Type
Walter Marget Workshop
Room
MC 2 HALL
Lecture Time
08:02 - 08:50

Moderator of 1 Session

Session Type
Parallel Symposium
Date
Wed, 11.05.2022
Session Time
15:40 - 17:10
Room
BANQUETING HALL