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Serious Adverse Events Following Vaccination Surveillance Scheme

The Serious Adverse Events Following Vaccination Surveillance Scheme is a national surveillance scheme which monitors the serious adverse events that occur rarely following vaccination. More details of the scheme were published in Commun Dis Intell 1999:23;58.

Acceptance of a report does not imply a causal relationship between administration of the vaccine and the medical outcome, or that the report has been verified as to the accuracy of its contents.

It is estimated that 250,000 doses of vaccines are administered every month to Australian children under the age of six years.

Results for the reporting period 1 February 1999 to 30 April 1999.

There were 219 reports of serious adverse events following vaccination for this reporting period (Table 6). Onset dates were from 1997 to 1998, the majority (96%) being in 1998. Reports were received from Australian Capital Territory (19), Northern Territory (2), Queensland (99), South Australia (11), Tasmania (1), Victoria (15) and Western Australia (72). No reports were received from New South Wales for this period. The majority of reports received were from Queensland (45%).

The most frequently reported events following vaccination were persistent screaming (119 cases, 55%), followed by other reactions (44 cases, 20%), temperature of 40.5^oC or more (25 cases, 11.4%) and hypotonic/hyporesponsive episodes (18 cases, 8%).

Twenty-one of the 219 cases were hospitalised of which 20 had recovered at the time of reporting. There was incomplete information on recovery status on 17 cases while all the other cases had recovered at the time of reporting.

One hundred and ninety-six (89%) cases were associated with Diptheria-Tetanus-Pertussis (DTP), vaccine either alone or in combination with other vaccines. Of these 61% of reports were associated with the first dose of DTP and 32% with the second dose.

Table 6. Adverse events following vaccination reported in the period 1 February to 30 April 1999¹

Event	Vaccines												Reporting States or Territories	Total reports for this period
	DTP	DTP/ Hib	DTP/ OPV/ Hib	DTP/ OPV/ Other	DTP/ OPV/ MMR	DTP/ OPV/ Hib/ Hep B	DTP/ MMR	MMR	Hib/ OPV/ Other	Hep B/ Other	Hep B	Other1
Persistent screaming	74	3	40	1									ACT, Qld, Vic, WA	118
Hypotonic/ Hyporesponsive	8	1	8									1	Qld, SA, Vic, WA	18
Temperature	18		6								1		ACT, Qld, Vic, WA	25
Convulsions	3	1	1						1				ACT, Qld, SA, Vic, WA	6
Anaphylaxis		1					1	2	1					5
Other	19	2	8		1	1		2	2	1	2	6	ACT, NT, Qld, SA, Vic, WA	44
Total	122	8	63	1	1	1	1	4	4	1	3	7		2162

1. Includes influenza vaccination, DTPa, CDT, OPV, Hepatitis B vaccine, pneumococcal vaccination, BCG, ADT and rabies immunoglobulin (HRIG)
2. Three cases have missing events

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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, and annually in HIV/AIDS and related diseases in Australia Annual Surveillance Report. The reports are 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; http://www.med.unsw.edu.au/nchecr.

HIV and AIDS diagnoses and deaths following AIDS reported for 1 to 31 December 1998, as reported to 31 March 1999, are included in this issue of Commun Dis Intell (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 1998, by sex and State or Territory of diagnosis

		State or territory								Totals for Australia
		ACT	NSW	NT	Qld	SA	Tas	Vic	WA	This period 1999	This period 1998	Year to date 1999	Year to date 1998
HIV diagnoses	Female	0	2	0	0	0	1	0	2	5	4	90	77
	Male	0	14	2	8	1	0	11	0	36	53	622	703
	Sex not reported	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	8	13
	Total1	0	17	2	8	1	1	11	2	42	58	622	794
AIDS diagnoses	Female	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	2	3	15	27
	Male	1	12	1	0	0	0	4	0	18	27	249	324
	Total1	1	14	1	0	0	1	4	0	21	30	265	351
AIDS deaths	Female	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	8	14
	Male	0	2	0	2	0	0	5	0	9	11	136	220
	Total1	0	2	0	2	0	0	5	0	9	11	144	235

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

Table 8. Cumulative diagnoses of HIV infection, AIDS and deaths following AIDS since the introduction of HIV antibody testing to 31 December 1998, by sex and State or Territory

		State or Territory								Australia
		ACT	NSW	NT	Qld	SA	Tas	Vic	WA
HIV diagnoses	Female	22	580	8	131	57	5	199	102	1,104
	Male	186	10,499	104	1,863	648	77	3,749	869	17,995
	Sex not reported	0	259	0	0	0	0	24	0	283
	Total1	208	11,357	112	2,001	705	82	3,985	974	19,424
AIDS diagnoses	Female	8	169	0	45	20	3	67	25	337
	Male	85	4,514	33	784	326	43	1,583	343	7,711
	Total1	93	4,695	33	831	346	46	1,657	370	8,071
AIDS deaths	Female	2	113	0	30	15	2	47	16	225
	Male	63	3,115	24	547	224	28	1,235	244	5,480
	Total1	65	3,235	24	579	239	30	1,288	261	5,721

This article was published in Communicable Diseases Intelligence Volume 23, No 5, 13 May 1999.