Australia’s notifiable diseases status, 2003: Annual report of the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System - Laboratory Virology and Serology Reporting Scheme

The Australia’s notifiable diseases status, 2003 report provides data and an analysis of communicable disease incidence in Australia during 2003. The full report is available in 20 HTML documents. This document contains the Laboratory Virology and Serology Reporting Scheme section. The full report is also available in PDF format from the Table of contents page.

Page last updated: 14 April 2005

Megge Miller, Paul Roche, Keflemariam Yohannes, Jenean Spencer, Mark Bartlett, Julia Brotherton, Jenny Hutchinson, Martyn Kirk, Ann McDonald, Claire Vadjic

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 2003, a total of 13 laboratories reported 23,160 infectious agents to LabVISE. This represents a 12 per cent decline in the number of reports received in 2002 (Table 22). The largest number of reports were from Queensland (28%), South Australia (26%) and New South Wales (17%, Table 22).

Table 22. Infectious agents reported to the Laboratory Virology and Serology Reporting Scheme, 2003, by state or territory

Organism State or territory Total 2003 Total 2002
ACT NSW NT Qld SA Tas Vic WA
Measles virus
7
1
5
24
33
1
71
16
Mumps virus
1
2
2
1
4
10
16
Rubella virus
2
13
4
4
3
26
92
Hepatitis A virus
1
2
6
17
12
4
45
87
71
Hepatitis D virus
2
10
7
19
7
Ross River virus
2
56
48
1,016
19
7
90
1,238
423
Barmah Forest virus
52
8
336
2
1
9
408
203
Sindbis virus
1
1
Dengue
3
6
1
1
28
39
168
Murray Valley encephalitis virus
1
1
7
Flavivirus (unspecified)
1
110
11
122
43
Adenoviruses
1
192
13
72
412
2
111
159
962
1,069
Herpesviruses
51
444
97
1,540
1,313
9
220
621
4,295
4,650
Other DNA viruses
1
8
77
9
84
100
279
Picornaviruses
2
441
10
17
21
5
30
304
830
1,372
Ortho/paramyxoviruses
4
1,371
39
399
1,594
47
472
644
4,570
6,289
Other RNA viruses
3
425
15
2
508
16
486
342
1,797
2,555
Chlamydia trachomatis
20
585
55
1,528
1,025
47
46
991
4,296
3,874
Chlamydia pneumoniae
3
6
1
5
15
32
Chlamydia psittaci
2
1
3
110
2
118
62
Mycoplasma pneumoniae
5
170
9
376
281
28
239
38
1,146
1,234
Mycoplasma hominis
9
9
2
Coxiella burnetii
4
11
2
53
82
16
10
178
251
Rickettsia spp
1
3
6
10
2
Streptococcus group A
22
12
6
315
135
490
526
Streptococcus group B
72
3
75
129
Yersinia enterocolitica
11
1
12
9
Brucella abortus
1
2
2
5
2
Brucella species
3
4
7
5
Bordetella pertussis
15
82
2
75
146
12
174
13
519
944
Legionella pneumophila
1
3
8
115
3
130
120
Legionella longbeachae
1
2
1
18
22
40
84
78
Legionella species
18
18
15
Cryptococcus species
1
9
16
26
30
Leptospira species
1
15
8
2
26
18
Treponema pallidum
125
95
478
448
11
8
1,165
1,400
Entamoeba histolytica
1
2
4
7
14
28
Toxoplasma gondii
1
14
6
9
8
3
41
28
Echinococcus granulosus
19
2
21
30
Total
209
4,046
417
6,469
5,988
166
2,381
3,485
23,160
25,800

– No reports received.

Sixty-four per cent of the 14,755 reports received by LabVISE were viral infectious agents, and the remaining 36 per cent (8,405) were bacterial or other infectious agents. Among viruses, ortho/paramyxoviruses (influenza, parainfluenza and respiratory syncytial virus) were the most commonly reported (30%; 4,570) followed by herpesviruses (29%; 4,295) (Figure 65). Among non-viral infectious agents, Chlamydia trachomatis (4,296, 51%), Treponema pallidium (1,165, 14%) and Mycoplasma pneumoniae (1,146, 13%) were the most commonly reported pathogens.

Figure 65. Reports of viral infections to the Laboratory Virology and Serology Reporting Scheme, 2003, by viral group




Figure 65. Reports of viral infections to the Laboratory Virology and Serology Reporting Scheme, 2003, by viral group


 

This article {extract} was published in Communicable Diseases Intelligence Vol 29 No 1 March 2005 and may be downloaded as a full version PDF from the Table of contents page.

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