Housing conditions and health in Indigenous Australian communities: current status and recent trends.

Ensuring sufficient and adequately maintained housing in Indigenous Australian communities remains an ongoing policy challenge for government, with major implications for the health of Indigenous Australians. This study sought to characterise the current status of housing conditions experienced by Indigenous Australians, with special reference to the Northern Territory. The assessment examined a range of indicators relating to crowding, dwelling condition, 'health hardware', and provision of maintenance and repairs. While acknowledging data deficiencies and inconsistencies, the analysis produced mixed results. There was evidence of a reduction in crowding but little observable improvement in the provision of maintenance and repairs. Some housing-related health outcomes have shown improvement, though these have tended to coincide with mass treatment campaigns. Achieving the goal of healthy homes - and ultimately closing the gap on Indigenous disadvantage - requires further investment in new houses that are appropriately designed and constructed, alongside an increased emphasis on cyclical maintenance.

Five enablers to deliver safe water and effective sewage treatment to remote Indigenous communities in Australia.

CONTEXT: Safe drinking water and effective sanitation in remotely located Indigenous communities are essential services and their provision is a human right. Yet sustainable provision of these services can be challenging. Risks to human health from inadequate provision include transmission of hygiene-related infections from microbial contamination, and toxic chemicals that may cause kidney damage or dysfunction. This narrative review is conducted in the current context of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 6, the 'refresh' of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap in Indigenous inequity, and the 2020 Inquiry of the Australian Productivity Commission into the National Water Reform. ISSUES: Challenges to providing drinking water supplies in remote communities include biological contamination and chemical contamination from naturally occurring elements in groundwater. Monitoring regimes can be challenged by remote location, minimal and/or high turnover of staff and a lack of ongoing maintenance. Unpalatable water can shift consumption to purchased drinks such as sugar-sweetened beverages, with flow-on health impacts of diet-related chronic conditions such as overweight and obesity, and type 2 diabetes. LESSONS LEARNED: By analysing two effective programs from remote areas of New South Wales and the Torres Strait Islands in Queensland, Australia, five enablers were identified: people factors (support, training, cultural competence); cross-agency collaboration (regulators, funders, state and local government); technology that is fit for place, purpose and local people; funding that is sufficient and sustainable; and taking a systems view of water and sanitation.

Health and the Sustainable Development Goals: Challenges for four Pacific countries.

Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG 3) focuses on health and well-being. To understand the in-country monitoring challenges for developing countries of reporting against SDG 3, this research sought published data for the four Pacific countries of Fiji, Papua New Guinea (PNG), the Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu-within a region with well-documented and significant health challenges. This research found that there are limited recent, comprehensive, and comparable data with identified sources against the SDG 3 outcome indicators at an in-country level. Without such data, there is a risk of relying on data that may be inaccurate because of aggregation, estimation, and modelling. The results from these data can influence the funding and other resources that could be made available to the Melanesian countries to address health inequities.

Climate change and infectious diseases in Australia's Torres Strait Islands.

OBJECTIVE: This research seeks to identify climate-sensitive infectious diseases of concern with a present and future likelihood of increased occurrence in the geographically vulnerable Torres Strait Islands, Australia. The objective is to contribute evidence to the need for adequate climate change responses. METHODS: Case data of infectious diseases with proven, potential and speculative climate sensitivity were compiled. RESULTS: Five climate-sensitive diseases in the Torres Strait and Cape York region were identified as of concern: tuberculosis, dengue, Ross River virus, melioidosis and nontuberculous mycobacterial infection. The region constitutes 0.52% of Queensland's population but has a disproportionately high proportion of the state's cases: 20.4% of melioidosis, 2.4% of tuberculosis and 2.1% of dengue. CONCLUSIONS: The Indigenous Torres Strait Islander peoples intend to remain living on their traditional country long-term, yet climate change brings risks of both direct and indirect human health impacts. Implications for public health: Climate-sensitive infections pose a disproportionate burden and ongoing risk to Torres Strait Islander peoples. Addressing the causes of climate change is the responsibility of various agencies in parallel with direct action to minimise or prevent infections. All efforts should privilege Torres Strait Islander peoples' voices to self-determine response actions.