Professor Bart Currie

Director, RHDAustralia; Team leader, Tropical and Emerging Infectious Diseases

Qualifications:

Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery, University of Melbourne, 1978; Fellow, Royal Australasian College of Physicians, 1985; Fellow of the Australian Faculty of Public Health Medicine, Royal Australasian College of Physicians, 1990; Diploma of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, London School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 1985.

Location:

Darwin - Royal Darwin Hospital campus

Biography:

On moving to Darwin more than 25 years ago, Professor Currie was initially head of the Menzies Clinical Division and now leads the Tropical and Emerging Infectious Diseases team within the Global and Tropical Health Division. Concurrently, Prof. Currie is also an infectious diseases physician at the Royal Darwin Hospital and since 2000 Professor in Medicine at the Northern Territory Medical Program, Flinders University. He is also Adjunct Professorial Fellow, Charles Darwin University and Adjunct Professor, College of Public Health, Medical and Veterinary Sciences, James Cook University. In late 2012 he took over as director of RHDAustralia, based at Menzies.

Prof. Currie’s passion is in coordinating links between clinicians, public health colleagues and other service providers, laboratory scientists and community.

The research Prof. Currie has been involved in has targeted improving prevention and treatment of specific illnesses usually through a better understanding of the underlying disease processes.

Prof. Currie was head of the Biomedical Program of the former Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Aboriginal and Tropical Health and an initial program leader of the Biomedical Program of the subsequent CRC for Aboriginal Health. Collaborations across Central and Northern Australia and with clinical and scientific colleagues elsewhere in Australia and overseas have resulted in 530 peer-reviewed publications.

Prof. Currie has peer reviewed grants for the NHMRC since the 1990s and has peer reviewed for 48 journals, including The Lancet, The New England Journal of Medicine and a range of PLoS and BMC open access journals.

Prof. Currie has supervised 16 successfully completed PhDs and 7 Master by Research students.

 

Professor Bart Currie
Email
Research Themes
  1. Wiersinga, W. J., Currie, B. J., & Peacock, S. J. (2012). Medical progress: Melioidosis. New England Journal of Medicine, 367(11), 1035-1044.
  2. Parameswaran, U., Baird, R. W., Ward, L. M., & Currie, B. J. (2012). Melioidosis at royal darwin hospital in the big 2009-2010 wet season: Comparison with the preceding 20 years. Medical Journal of Australia, 196(5), 345-348.
  3. Currie, B. J., Ward, L., & Cheng, A. C. (2010). The epidemiology and clinical spectrum of melioidosis: 540 cases from the 20 year darwin prospective study. PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 4(11).
  4. Currie, B. J., & McCarthy, J. S. (2010). Permethrin and ivermectin for scabies. New England Journal of Medicine, 362(8), 717-725.
  5. Currie, B. J., Haslem, A., Pearson, T., Hornstra, H., Leadem, B., Mayo, M., et al. (2009). Identification of melioidosis outbreak by multilocus variable number tandem repeat analysis. Emerging Infectious Diseases, 15(2), 169-174.
  6. Currie, B. J. (2006). Group A streptococcal infections of the skin: Molecular advances but limited therapeutic progress. Current Opinion in Infectious Diseases, 19(2), 132-138.
  7. Currie, B. J. (2006). Treatment of snakebite in Australia: The current evidence base and questions requiring collaborative multicentre prospective studies. Toxicon, 48(7), 941-956.
  8. McDonald, M., Currie, B. J., & Carapetis, J. R. (2004). Acute rheumatic fever: A chink in the chain that links the heart to the throat? Lancet Infectious Diseases, 4(4), 240-245.
  9. Currie, B. J., Harumal, P., McKinnon, M., & Walton, S. F. (2004). First documentation of in vivo and in vitro ivermectin resistance in Sarcoptes scabiei. Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, 39(1), e8-12.
  10. Currie, B. J. (2004). Snakebite in tropical Australia: A prospective study in the "top end" of the Northern Territory. Medical Journal of Australia, 181(11-12), 693-697.
Click here to view more Bart Currie publications in PubMed.
  1. Australian native animals spreading scrub typhus mite prompt warning

    Australian native animals spreading scrub typhus mite prompt warning

    Date

    Scrub typhus is just one of many tropical diseases in the NT that are not so well known down south.

  2. Melioidosis: More cases of potentially fatal bacteria from NT dirt emerge

    Melioidosis: More cases of potentially fatal bacteria from NT dirt emerge

    Date

    More people are being infected by a potentially fatal bacterium in the Northern Territory, and health experts suspect building works could have something to do with the rise in cases.

  3. HOT NORTH Fellowships to improve health outcomes in the tropics

    HOT NORTH Fellowships to improve health outcomes in the tropics

    Date

    Five post-doctoral health professionals have been awarded Fellowships to help close critical gaps in health outcomes in northern Australia and the Asia-Pacific region as part of the unique collaborative program Improving Health Outcomes in the Tropical North (HOT NORTH), led by the Darwin-based Menzies School of Health Research (Menzies).

  4. Menzies helps track the travels of the deadly melioidosis bacteria

    Menzies helps track the travels of the deadly melioidosis bacteria

    Date

    An international team of experts has confirmed the Australian origins of the bacterium (Burkholderia pseudomallei) which causes the potentially fatal infectious disease melioidosis and tracked its global dissemination.

  5. Melioidosis: The Most Neglected Tropical Disease

    Melioidosis: The Most Neglected Tropical Disease

    Date

    Three sessions at the American Society for Microbiology 2017 Biothreats conference covered specific emerging diseases. Two of these, Zika and Ebola, have received a lot of media coverage (including on this blog), but the third disease, melioidosis, isn’t frequently found in newspaper headlines.

  6. Funding boost to tackle health challenges in northern Australia

    Funding boost to tackle health challenges in northern Australia

    Date

    Work will begin to help close critical gaps in healthcare across northern Australia as the result of a $6m grant awarded today to Menzies School of Health Research (Menzies) by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).

  7. A global picture of melioidosis

    A global picture of melioidosis

    Date

    The bacterium Burkholderia pseudomallei is found in soil and water and causes the disease melioidosis in humans and animals. It was upgraded to a Tier 1 Select Agent by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2012 — the designation given to pathogens considered of highest risk.

  8. Trial results hold hope for scabies prevention

    Trial results hold hope for scabies prevention

    Date

    A NEW trial that reduced scabies outbreaks by 94 per cent in one year could hold the key to its prevention in indigenous communities in the Territory.

  9. AUSTRALIAN RESEARCHERS PLAY VITAL ROLE IN ADDRESSING THE GLOBAL SCABIES CRISIS

    AUSTRALIAN RESEARCHERS PLAY VITAL ROLE IN ADDRESSING THE GLOBAL SCABIES CRISIS

    Date

    In a world-first study, treatment of a whole community with oral ivermectin has been shown to virtually eliminate scabies, providing new hope in the fight to control this debilitating disease.

  10. Menzies melioidosis project recognised among Australia's best

    Menzies melioidosis project recognised among Australia's best

    Date

    A Menzies project has been recognised amongst the nation’s premier research projects by Australia’s peak body for health and medical research.

  11. ABC Catalyst: Melioidosis feature

    ABC Catalyst: Melioidosis feature

    Date

    Life in northern Australia is full of spectacular surprises and natural hazards, some more obvious than others.

  12. National boost for new Indigenous and tropical health research

    National boost for new Indigenous and tropical health research

    Date

    The Menzies School of Health Research (Menzies) has been awarded federal funding for 12 competitive grants and fellowships to help improve outcomes for disadvantaged populations in Australia and the Asia- Pacific region.

  13. The melioidosis files

    The melioidosis files

    Date

    A potentially fatal bacterial disease, lurking in soil.