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

 

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.