Australia's notifiable diseases status, 2006: Annual report of the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System - Results: Laboratory Virology and Serology Reporting Scheme

The Australia’s notifiable diseases status, 2006 report provides data and an analysis of communicable disease incidence in Australia during 2006. The full report is available in 17 HTML documents. The full report is also available in PDF format from the Table of contents page.

Page last updated: 30 June 2008

Results

Other communicable disease surveillance

Laboratory Virology and Serology Reporting Scheme

The Laboratory Virology and Serology Reporting Scheme (LabVISE) is a passive surveillance scheme based on voluntary reports of infectious agents from sentinel virology and serology laboratories around Australia. LabVISE provides data on diagnoses of a number of infectious viruses, parasites and fungi. Interpretation of data from LabVISE is limited by uncertainties regarding its representativeness, lack of denominator data to calculate positivity rates, variable reporting coverage over time, and lack of consistent case definitions. LabVISE has an important role in supplementing information of diseases under surveillance in NNDSS and in monitoring infectious agents that are not reported by other surveillance systems.

In 2006, a total of 11 laboratories reported 19,384 infectious agents to LabVISE. This represents a 13% decrease in the number of reports received in 2005 (Table 22). Most of the reports were from South Australia (30%), Queensland (27%) and New South Wales (20%) (Table 22).

Table 22. Infectious agents reported to the Laboratory Virology and Serology Reporting Scheme (LabVISE) 2006, by state or territory

Organism State or territory Total 2006 Total 2005
  ACT NSW NT Qld SA Tas. Vic. WA    
Measles virus
27
4
10
6
10
57
8
Mumps virus
1
1
7
4
14
27
38
Rubella virus
2
4
1
4
2
13
12
Hepatitis A virus
4
3
9
7
1
7
31
53
Hepatitis D virus
1
4
2
7
14
Hepatitis E virus
1
5
6
12
Ross River virus
41
45
662
222
1
31
60
1,062
452
Barmah Forest virus
10
127
146
6
289
185
Flavivirus (unspecified)
1
37
9
47
37
Adenovirus type 1
3
3
7
Adenovirus not typed/pending
10
284
1
38
163
126
622
680
Herpes virus type 6
4
4
2
Cytomegalovirus
4
221
1
95
410
17
111
3
862
1,042
Varicella-zoster virus
3
137
1
583
266
7
40
1,037
1,499
Epstein-Barr virus
16
93
483
428
7
34
384
1,445
2,148
Molluscum contagiosum
1
1
Poxvirus group not typed
3
3
2
Parvovirus
5
77
78
1
25
186
202
Coxsackievirus A9
16
16
3
Coxsackievirus A16
2
2
6
Echovirus type 34
1
1
Echovirus type 3
3
3
Echovirus type 5
2
2
2
Echovirus type 8
1
1
Echovirus type 11
2
2
4
Echovirus type 18
2
2
14
Echovirus type 22
4
4
1
Echovirus type 30
16
16
36
Rhinovirus (all types)
1
182
20
1
1
1
206
329
Enterovirus not typed/pending
6
73
11
2
3
7
102
187
Picornavirus not typed
1
1
2
1
Influenza A virus
3
79
69
68
4
114
337
708
Influenza A virus H3N2
1
1
2
Influenza B virus
42
15
81
34
172
257
Parainfluenza virus type 1
25
26
23
74
64
Parainfluenza virus type 2
9
1
5
15
49
Parainfluenza virus type 3
1
103
15
54
46
219
390
Respiratory syncytial virus
846
1
186
375
28
372
1,808
1,679
HTLV-1
6
6
9
Rotavirus
3
579
323
77
301
2
1,285
1,270
Astrovirus
1
1
4
Norwalk agent
25
1,513
1,538
267
Chlamydia trachomatis not typed
22
874
1
1,558
1,322
54
50
2
3,883
5,049
Chlamydia pneumoniae
1
1
8
Chlamydia psittaci
7
1
57
65
53
Chlamydia spp typing pending
1
1
Chlamydia species
1
1
2
1
Mycoplasma pneumoniae
1
28
12
384
273
26
210
101
1,035
1,309
Mycoplasma hominis
23
23
7
Coxiella burnetii (Q fever)
4
3
32
44
1
20
104
162
Rickettsia prowazeki
24
24
161
Orentia tsutsugamushi
25
1
26
71
Rickettsia – spotted fever group
85
2
87
236
Streptococcus group A
6
294
77
377
609
Yersinia enterocolitica
4
1
5
6
Brucella species
2
3
5
14
Bordetella pertussis
2
45
3
157
1,003
1
102
1,313
1,573
Legionella pneumophila
7
13
8
28
23
Legionella longbeachae
1
10
10
21
51
Legionella species
1
1
1
Cryptococcus species
2
6
11
19
41
Leptospira species
2
9
7
18
33
Treponema pallidum
164
3
363
250
6
786
1,086
Entamoeba histolytica
1
1
14
Toxoplasma gondii
8
7
10
4
10
39
45
Echinococcus granulosus
3
3
10
Total
58
3,939
168
5,240
5,780
241
3,396
562
19,384
22,238

– No data received.

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Fifty-nine per cent (11,517) of all reports received by LabVISE were viral infectious agents, and the remaining 41% (7,867) were bacterial or other infectious agents. Among viruses, herpes viruses (17%; 3,348) (including herpes virus type 6, cytomegalovirus, varicella-zoster virus, Epstein-Barr virus), RNA viruses (15%; 2,830) (including HTLV-1, rotavirus, astrovirus and Norwalk agent) and ortho/paramyxoviruses (14%; 2,626) (including influenza, parainfluenza and respiratory syncytial viruses) were the most commonly reported pathogens (Figure 78). Among non-viral infectious agents, Chlamydia trachomatis (20%; 3,883), Bordetella pertussis (7%; 1,313) and Mycoplasma pneumoniae (5%; 1,035) were the most commonly reported pathogens.

Figure 78. Reports of viral infections to the Laboratory Virology and Serology Reporting Scheme, 2006, by viral group



Figure 78. Reports of viral infections to the Laboratory Virology and Serology Reporting Scheme, 2006, by viral group
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