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National Influenza Surveillance, 1998

Three types of data are included in National Influenza Surveillance, 1998. These are sentinel general practitioner surveillance conducted by the Australian Sentinel Practice Research Network, Department of Human Services (Victoria), Department of Health (New South Wales) and the Tropical Influenza Surveillance Scheme, Territory Health (Northern Territory); laboratory surveillance data from the Communicable Diseases Intelligence Virology and Serology Laboratory Reporting Scheme, LabVISE, and the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Influenza Reference and Research; and absenteeism surveillance conducted by Australia Post. For further information about these schemes, see Commun Dis Intell 1998;22:83.

Sentinel General Practitioner Surveillance

Consultation rates for influenza like illness recorded by ASPREN remained below 9 per 1,000 consultations (Figure 9). The rates for the Northern Territory Tropical Influenza surveillance have shown a modest decline since the beginning of the year to levels below 3 per 1,000 consultations in the last month. These are comparable to those reported by the Victorian scheme. The New South Wales scheme reported the highest levels of influenza activity for the month of May, with consultation rates between 8 and 12 per 1,000 encounters.

Figure 9. Sentinel general practitioner influenza consultation rates, 1998, by scheme and week

Laboratory Surveillance

For the year to date there have been 208 laboratory reports of influenza. Of these, 160 (77%) were influenza A and 48 (23%) influenza B (Figure 10). More influenza A has been reported for the 25 to 44 year old age group than in the previous month, and influenza B reports continued to be low in children less than 5 years of age.

Figure 10. Laboratory reports of influenza, 1998, by type and week of specimen collection


The WHO Collaborating Centre for Influenza Reference and Research has received 36 isolates of influenza A and 6 of influenza B for the year to date. All the influenza A viruses were H3N2 strains related to A/Sydney /5/97. Analysis of type B isolates is pending.

Absenteeism surveillance

Rates of absenteeism for Australia Post employees for three consecutive days of each week have been reported for the four weeks preceding May 27. These rates have remained stable at a level of 0.25% to 0.27% nationally.

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HIV and AIDS Surveillance

National surveillance for HIV disease is coordinated by the National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research (NCHECR), in collaboration with State and Territory health authorities and the Commonwealth of Australia. Cases of HIV infection are notified to the National HIV Database on the first occasion of diagnosis in Australia, by either the diagnosing laboratory (ACT, New South Wales, Tasmania, Victoria) or by a combination of laboratory and doctor sources (Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia). Cases of AIDS are notified through the State and Territory health authorities to the National AIDS Registry. Diagnoses of both HIV infection and AIDS are notified with the person's date of birth and name code, to minimise duplicate notifications while maintaining confidentiality.

Tabulations of diagnoses of HIV infection and AIDS are based on data available three months after the end of the reporting interval indicated, to allow for reporting delay and to incorporate newly available information. More detailed information on diagnoses of HIV infection and AIDS is published in the quarterly Australian HIV Surveillance Report, available from the National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research, 376 Victoria Street, Darlinghurst NSW 2010. Telephone: (02) 9332 4648 Facsimile: (02) 9332 1837.

HIV and AIDS diagnoses and deaths following AIDS reported for December 1997, as reported to 31 March 1998, are included in this issue of CDI (Tables 7 and 8).

Table 7. New diagnoses of HIV infection, new diagnoses of AIDS and deaths following AIDS occurring in the period 1 to 31 December 1997, by sex and State or Territory of diagnosis

		ACT	NSW	NT	Qld	SA	Tas	Vic	WA	Australia
HIV diagnoses	Female	20	540	7	119	51	4	191	82	1,014
	Male	178	10,163	93	1,766	620	75	3,674	843	17,412
	Sex not reported	0	260	0	0	0	0	29	1	290
	Total1	198	10,983	100	1,891	671	79	3,904	929	18,755
AIDS diagnoses	Female	7	157	0	43	19	2	63	23	314
	Male	80	4,325	30	752	318	41	1,515	334	7,395
	Total1	87	4,493	30	797	337	43	1,585	359	7,731
AIDS deaths	Female	2	112	0	28	14	2	43	15	216
	Male	52	3,032	23	523	214	26	1,198	241	5,309
	Total1	54	3,151	23	553	228	28	1,247	257	5,541

1. Persons whose sex was reported as transgender are included in the totals.

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Table 8. Cumulative diagnoses of HIV infection, AIDS and deaths following AIDS since the introduction of HIV antibody testing to 31 December 1997, by sex and State or Territory

		State or territory								Totals for Australia
		ACT	NSW	NT	Qld	SA	Tas	Vic	WA	This period 1997	This period 1996	Year to date 1997	Year to date 1996
HIV diagnoses	Female	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	1	3	4	75	69
	Male	0	26	0	10	2	0	15	2	55	64	702	852
	Sexnotreported	0	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	0	17	5
	Total1	0	29	0	10	3	0	16	3	61	68	795	927
AIDS diagnoses	Female	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	0	2	3	25	32
	Male	0	10	0	3	0	0	4	0	17	37	286	609
	Total1	0	10	0	4	0	0	5	0	19	40	311	641
AIDS deaths	Female	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	13	17
	Male	0	4	0	1	0	0	2	0	7	26	204	480
	Total1	0	4	0	1	0	0	2	0	7	27	218	497

1. Persons whose sex was reported as transgender are included in the totals.

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Childhood immunisation coverage

Table 9 provides the latest quarterly report on childhood immunisation coverage from the Australian Childhood Immunisation Register (ACIR).

The data show the percentage of children fully immunised at age 12 months for the cohort born between 1 July and 30 September 1996 according to the Australian Standard Vaccination Schedule.

A full description of the methodology used can be found in Commun Dis Intell 1998;22:36-37.

Table 9. Percentage of children immunised at 1 year of age, preliminary results by disease and State for the birth cohort 1 July 1996 to 30 September 1996; assessment date 30 September 1997.

	State or Territory								Australia
	ACT	NSW	NT1	Qld	SA	Tas	Vic	WA
Total number of children	1,123	22,756	886	12,461	4,844	1,737	15,869	6,519	66,195
Vaccine
DTP (%)	82.7	77.6	59.1	81.5	80.9	80.7	81.6	72.0	78.9
OPV (%)	82.3	77.2	59.4	81.9	80.8	81.6	81.7	72.3	78.9
Hib (%)	81.3	76.8	66.6	82.5	80.8	80.9	81.7	72.4	79.0
Fully Immunised (%)	80.6	74.7	55.0	79.4	78.9	79.2	79.9	70.5	76.7
Change in fully immunised since last quarter (%)	+3.2	+1.5	-6.7	-1.1	+2.0	+3.2	-0.1	+3.6	+0.9

1. Some data from the Northern Territory were not included on the ACIR at the time of these calculations. Northern Territory calculations, using a local database, indicate that the proportions of children immunised at 12 months of age are as follows: DTP - 80.0%, Polio 79.8%, Hib 86.0%, fully immunised - 77.0%.

This report was published in Communicable Diseases Intelligence Vol 22 No 6, 11 June 1998.