One Disease is a non-profit organisation that aims to systematically eliminate preventable disease from remote Indigenous communities in Australia. We aim to eliminate Crusted Scabies as a public health concern in remote Indigenous communities across Australia by 2022. Crusted Scabies is a highly contagious skin disease that affects 1 in 460 people in the Top End of the Northern Territory. People with Crusted Scabies become engulfed with millions of scabies mites because their body is unable to launch an immune response to control mite replication. They often suffer in silence with pain and disfigurement (crusting and rotting flesh) similar to the social stigma of leprosy. If left untreated these individuals have a 50% mortality rate over 5 years. One Disease supports these people and their families through a program focused on strong local partnerships, clinical expertise, education and building community capacity. We believe that no Australian should die of a preventable disease. Eliminating disease will create a stronger partnership with Indigenous Australians and begin to heal a much older wound.
