Australia's notifiable diseases status, 2005: Annual report of the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System - Other communicable disease surveillance: Laboratory Virology and Serology Reporting Scheme

The Australia’s notifiable diseases status, 2005 report provides data and an analysis of communicable disease incidence in Australia during 2005. The full report is available in 20 HTML documents. This document contains the section on the Laboratory Virology and Serology Reporting Scheme. The full report is also available in PDF format from the Table of contents page.

Page last updated: 13 April 2007

This article {extract} was published in Communicable Diseases Intelligence Vol 31 No 1 March 2007 and may be downloaded as a full version PDF from the Table of contents page.

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. However, 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 2005, a total of 12 laboratories reported 22,316 infectious agents to LabVISE. This represents a 15% decrease in the number of reports received in 2004 (Table 19). Most of the reports were from South Australia (30%), Queensland (27%) and Western Australia (16%) (Table 19).

Fifty three per cent (11,747) of all reports received by LabVISE were viral infectious agents, and the remaining 47% (10,569) were bacterial or other infectious agents. Among viruses, herpes viruses (40%; 4,691) were the most commonly reported followed by ortho/paramyxoviruses (27%; 3,158), which includes influenza, parainfluenza and respiratory syncytial viruses (Figure 67). Among non-viral infectious agents, Chlamydia trachomatis (48%; 5,049), Bordetella pertussis (15%; 1,573) and Mycoplasma pneumoniae (12%; 1,309) were the most commonly reported pathogens.

Table 19. Infectious agents reported to the Laboratory Virology and Serology Reporting Scheme, 2005, by state or territory

Organism
State or territory Total 2005 Total 2004
ACT NSW NT Qld SA Tas Vic WA
Measles virus
1
4
2
1
8
35
Mumps virus
1
10
11
15
1
38
6
Rubella virus
6
4
2
12
20
Hepatitis A virus
3
2
17
29
2
53
51
Hepatitis D virus
1
9
4
14
8
Hepatitis E virus
2
1
9
12
14
Ross River virus
7
45
269
93
2
15
21
452
743
Barmah Forest virus
8
1
144
32
185
195
Flavivirus (unspecified)
1
3
30
3
37
102
Adenovirus type 1
1
6
7
Adenovirus not typed/pending
167
1
84
308
1
118
1
680
1,052
Herpes virus type 6
2
2
6
Cytomegalovirus
13
295
11
90
524
10
96
3
1,042
834
Varicella-zoster virus
7
152
11
882
386
11
48
2
1,499
2,061
Epstein-Barr virus
93
87
812
729
4
66
357
2,148
2,367
Poxvirus group not typed
1
1
2
2
Parvovirus
1
16
93
61
1
30
202
413
Coxsackievirus A9
3
3
1
Coxsackievirus A16
1
5
6
5
Echovirus type 5
2
2
Echovirus type 6
2
2
Echovirus type 7
8
8
12
Echovirus type 9
2
2
10
Echovirus type 11
4
4
20
Echovirus type 13
1
1
Echovirus type 18
1
13
14
19
Echovirus type 22
1
1
2
Echovirus type 30
1
34
1
36
7
Poliovirus type 1 (uncharacterised)
21
21
18
Poliovirus type 2 (uncharacterised)
19
19
21
Poliovirus type 3 (uncharacterised)
6
6
9
Rhinovirus (all types)
3
265
58
1
2
329
617
Enterovirus type 71 (BCR)
1
2
3
3
Enterovirus not typed/pending
5
126
25
13
1
18
188
205
Picornavirus not typed
1
1
4
Influenza A virus
159
3
97
356
93
708
492
Influenza A virus H3N2
1
1
2
Influenza B virus
46
25
146
1
39
257
219
Parainfluenza virus type 1
25
2
17
20
64
143
Parainfluenza virus type 2
22
4
18
5
49
15
Parainfluenza virus type 3
129
13
201
2
45
390
655
Respiratory syncytial virus
2
750
262
338
57
267
3
1,679
2,599
Paramyxovirus (unspecified)
9
9
HTLV-1
8
1
9
15
Rotavirus
2
484
1
1
588
12
182
1,270
1,247
Astrovirus
4
4
Norwalk agent
267
267
659
Chlamydia trachomatis not typed
10
773
10
2,324
1,809
59
61
3
5,049
5,257
Chlamydia pneumoniae
4
4
8
9
Chlamydia psittaci
2
1
50
53
173
Chlamydia species
1
1
3
Mycoplasma pneumoniae
111
20
458
342
45
244
89
1,309
1,374
Mycoplasma hominis
7
7
5
Coxiella burnetii (Q fever)
1
10
39
87
25
162
173
Rickettsia prowazeki
161
161
105
Rickettsia australis
1
1
Rickettsia tsutsugamushi
71
71
67
Rickettsia - Spotted fever group
232
4
236
139
Streptococcus group A
11
441
1
156
609
467
Yersinia enterocolitica
6
6
8
Brucella abortus
1
1
1
3
6
Brucella species
5
9
14
9
Bordetella pertussis
1
87
5
224
992
1
263
1,573
1,358
Bordetella parapertussis
2
2
1
Legionella pneumophila
5
10
8
23
77
Legionella longbeachae
2
41
8
51
76
Legionella species
1
1
15
Cryptococcus species
2
8
31
41
38
Leptospira species
1
19
13
33
23
Treponema pallidum
2
180
4
489
410
1
1,086
1,154
Entamoeba histolytica
7
7
14
14
Toxoplasma gondii
16
10
13
1
5
45
41
Echinococcus granulosus
1
9
10
15
Total
51
4,100
204
6,902
8,152
215
2,208
484
22,316
25,513
Figure 67. Reports of viral infections to the Laboratory Virology  and Serology Reporting Scheme, 2005, by viral group

Figure 67. Reports of viral infections to the Laboratory Virology and Serology Reporting Scheme, 2005, by viral group

 

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