A print friendly PDF version is available from this Communicable Diseases Intelligence issue's table of contents.

Other communicable disease surveillance

Australian Sentinel Practice Research Network

The Research and Health Promotion Unit of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners operates the Australian Sentinel Practice Research Network (ASPREN). ASPREN is a national network of general practitioners that report each week on a number of conditions selected annually. The data provide an indicator of the burden of disease in the primary care setting and allow trends in consultation rates to be detected.

There were approximately 120 general practitioners participating in the scheme from all states and territories in 2001. Approximately 75 per cent of these are located in metropolitan areas and the remainder are in rural areas. Each week, an average of 56 participating practices reported an average 6,476 consultations to the scheme. In 2001, four conditions related to communicable diseases were reported. These were influenza-like illnesses, culture-confirmed influenza, chickenpox and shingles. Case definitions for these conditions were published in Commun Dis Intell 2000;24:7-8.

In 2001, a total of 336,745 consultations were reported to ASPREN by participating General Practitioners. Among consultations for communicable diseases, influenza-like illness was the most commonly reported condition (n=1,878), with a further 36 culture positive influenza cases reported to the scheme. Weekly reports of influenza-like illness peaked in winter months.

There were 656 cases of chickenpox and 460 cases of shingles reported to ASPREN in 2001, corresponding to an average weekly rate for chickenpox of 1.9 cases per 10,000 consultations and 1.4 cases per 1,000 consultations for shingles.


This article was published in Communicable Diseases Intelligence Volume 27, No 1, March 2003.