A report on the varicella-zoster virus workshop convened by the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance of Vaccine Preventable Diseases on 16-17 November 2006

Erratum: Figures 2 and 3 in the Communicable Diseases Surveillance Highlights for 2nd quarter, 2007 were incorrect. The correct figures are published in the attached Erratum document. Communicable diseases surveillance outcomes from several reporting series as follows: Highlights for 2nd quarter, 2007 (bloodborne disease, vaccine preventable diseases, quarantinable diseases, other bacterial infections);National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System tables, 1 April to 30 June 2007;Laboratory Serology and Virology Reporting Scheme tables, 1 April to 30 June 2007;Australian Sentinel Practices Research Network, reporting period 1 April to 30 June 2007;Gonococcal surveillance, reporting period 1 January to 31 March 2007;Australian childhood immunisation coverage, 1 January to 31 March 2007 cohort, assessed as at 30 June 2007;HIV and AIDS surveillance, reporting period 1 January to 31 March 2007, assessed as at 30 June 2007;Meningococcal surveillance, reporting period 1 April to 30 June 2007;National Enteric Pathogens Surveillance System, reporting period 1 April to 30 June 2007.

In the article 'Pneumococcal disease in Australia: current status and future challenges' published in the last issue of Communicable Diseases Intelligence (Commun Dis Intell 2003;27:78-88). The last sentence on page 80 which reads, ‘In Victoria, preliminary data from a National Health and Medical Research Council funded hospital-based case-cohort study suggest that 23vPPV has an effectiveness of 80 per cent when measured against an outcome of hospitalisation for pneumonia’ is erroneous and should be ignored.

Alexandra Geue, former Director of the Infection Management Section, Department of Health and Ageing, describes the progress towards a national antibiotic resistance management program since the JETACAR report. Tim Dyke from the National Registration Authority for Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals, describes the regulation of veterinary antibiotics in Australia.

This report describes the role and activities of the Intergovernmental Committee on HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis C and Related Diseases.

Corrections for CDI (Victorian Legionella commentary correction, non-TB mycobacteria, New South Wales National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System tables correction)

Of 134 Queensland passengers on a cruise, 91 (67.9%) people reported various illnesses including 41 (30.6%) who reported diarrhoeal symptoms. Queensland passengers who ate while onshore at non-Australian ports were significantly more at risk of developing diarrhoeal symptoms than those who did not. Passengers were particularly at risk when they ate onshore while undertaking a tour compared with those who did not undertake this tour. Travellers should be warned of the possibility of contracting diarrhoeal illness from onshore catering.

An outbreak of ciguatera fish poisoning in outer Melbourne in September 1997 was traced to a 16.2 kg Maori Wrasse fish imported into Victoria from Trunk Reef in Queensland. The outbreak involved 46 individuals attending a banquet at an Asian restaurant at which four different dishes prepared from the flesh and viscera of the fish were offered. In all 30 individuals consumed at least one of these dishes and all reported one or more symptoms, in the main gastrointestinal and/or in 18 cases neurological. Seventeen cases were seen in four different hospitals and nine were treated with parenteral mannitol therapy. Nine of 18 cases were still symptomatic 10 weeks after the episode. Education of Asian restaurateurs and the wider community about the risks of ciguatera fish poisoning was undertaken.

We report the emerging drug-resistance in Streptococcus pneumoniae seen by the South Western Area Pathology Service (SWAPS) from 1 January 1990 to 31 July 2000. SWAPS performs all the pathology testing for the public hospitals in the South Western Sydney Area Health Service, which serves a population of 700,000; 120,000 separations occur at these hospitals annually. In all, 2,265 patients submitted specimens yielding S. pneumoniae. These included respiratory tract specimens, blood cultures, eye swabs and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Resistance to penicillin, cefotaxime, and non-beta-lactam antibiotics, especially cotrimoxazole, has emerged over the 1990s. From 1997 onwards, around 10 per cent of CSF and blood culture isolates demonstrated penicillin-resistance and 5 per cent showed cefotaxime-resistance. In 2000, 35 per cent of pneumococci from sites other than CSF and blood exhibited resistance to penicillin and 15 per cent showed resistance to cefotaxime. Resistance to other agents also increased over the decade. In 2000, 76 per cent of all isolates were resistant to cotrimoxazole, 26 per cent to erythromycin and 24 per cent to tetracyclines. Rifampicin-resistance was negligible over the decade, and vancomycin-resistance was absent. Antibiotics currently used for empirical treatment of certain S. pneumoniae infections may now need to be reviewed.

Highlights for August 2000 (typhoid, vaccine preventable diseases, malaria, legionellosis, meningococcal infections, influenza);National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System tables, 1 to 31 August 2000;Laboratory Serology and Virology Reporting Scheme tables, 1 to 31 August 2000;Australian Sentinel Practice Research Network report tables, weeks 31 to 34, 2000;Gonococcal surveillance, reporting period 1 April to 30 June 2000;Australian encephalitis: chicken surveillance program, reporting period July and August 2000;HIV and AIDS surveillance, reporting period 1 to 30 April 2000, assessed as at 31 July 2000.