Australian Paediatric Surveillance Unit (APSU) Annual Surveillance Report 2020

Suzy M Teutsch; Carlos A Nunez; Anne Morris; Guy D Eslick; Gulam Khandaker; Angela Berkhout; Daniel Novakovic; Julia M L Brotherton; Skye McGregor; Jonathan King; Ece Egilmezer; Robert Booy; Cheryl A Jones; William Rawlinson; Bruce R Thorley; Elizabeth J Elliott

doi:10.33321/cdi.2021.45.59

Australian Paediatric Surveillance Unit (APSU) Annual Surveillance Report 2020

Commun Dis Intell (2018). 2021 Oct 28:45. doi: 10.33321/cdi.2021.45.59.

Authors

Suzy M Teutsch^{1

2

3}, Carlos A Nunez^{1

2

3}, Anne Morris^{1

2

3}, Guy D Eslick^{1

2

3}, Gulam Khandaker⁴, Angela Berkhout⁵, Daniel Novakovic⁶, Julia M L Brotherton^{7

8}, Skye McGregor⁹, Jonathan King⁹, Ece Egilmezer^{10

11}, Robert Booy¹², Cheryl A Jones¹³, William Rawlinson^{14

11}, Bruce R Thorley^{15

16}, Elizabeth J Elliott^{2

3}

Affiliations

¹ The Australian Paediatric Surveillance Unit.
² The University of Sydney, Faculty of Medicine and Health, Discipline of Child and Adolescent Health, Sydney, New South Wales, AUSTRALIA.
³ The Sydney Children's Hospitals Network, Westmead, Sydney, New South Wales, AUSTRALIA.
⁴ Director of Public Health/Public Health Physician and Director of Medical Research, Central Queensland Hospital and Health Service, Rockhampton, Queensland, AUSTRALIA.
⁵ Microbiology Registrar, Microbiology and laboratory services, The Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, Victoria, AUSTRALIA.
⁶ ENT, Head and Neck Surgeon, Laryngologist, and Director, Dr Liang Voice Program, The University of Sydney, Faculty of Medicine and Health, Central Clinical School, Sydney, New South Wales, AUSTRALIA.
⁷ Medical Director, VCS Population Health, VCS Foundation, Melbourne, Victoria, AUSTRALIA.
⁸ Honorary Principal Fellow, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Victoria, AUSTRALIA.
⁹ Epidemiologist, The Kirby Institute, UNSW Sydney, New South Wales, AUSTRALIA.
¹⁰ Virology Research Laboratory, Prince of Wales Hospital, Randwick, Sydney, New South Wales, AUSTRALIA.
¹¹ UNSW Sydney, New South Wales, AUSTRALIA.
¹² Senior Professorial Fellow, National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance, Sydney, New South Wales, AUSTRALIA.
¹³ Dean and Head of Sydney Medical School, The University of Sydney, Faculty of Medicine and Health, Sydney, New South Wales, AUSTRALIA.
¹⁴ Senior Medical Virologist, Director of Serology, Virology and OTDS Laboratories, NSW Health Pathology Randwick, Sydney, New South Wales, AUSTRALIA.
¹⁵ Head, National Enterovirus Reference Laboratory and WHO Polio Regional Reference Laboratory, Victorian Infectious Disease Reference Laboratory, Melbourne, Victoria, AUSTRALIA.
¹⁶ The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, Melbourne, Victoria, AUSTRALIA.

PMID: 34711146
DOI: 10.33321/cdi.2021.45.59

Abstract

For 27 years, national prospective data on selected rare childhood diseases have been collected monthly by the Australian Paediatric Surveillance Unit (APSU) from paediatricians and other clinical specialists who report cases in children aged up to 16 years. We report here the annual results of APSU surveillance in 2020 for ten rare communicable diseases and complications of communicable diseases, namely: acute flaccid paralysis (AFP); congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection; neonatal herpes simplex virus (HSV) infection; perinatal exposure to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV); paediatric HIV infection; severe complications of seasonal influenza; juvenile onset recurrent respiratory papillomatosis (JoRRP); congenital rubella syndrome; congenital varicella syndrome; and neonatal varicella infection. We describe the results for each disease in the context of the total period of study, including demographics, clinical characteristics, treatment and short-term outcomes. Despite challenges presented by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in 2020, more than 1,400 paediatricians reported regularly to the APSU and an overall monthly reporting rate of > 90% was achieved. The minimum AFP target of 1 case per 100,000 children aged less than 15 years was achieved and there were few cases of vaccine-preventable diseases (JoRRP, rubella, varicella). However, high cases of congenital CMV, neonatal HSV and perinatal exposure to HIV persist. There were no severe complications of seasonal influenza reported for the first time in 13 years. This is consistent with other surveillance data reporting a decline of influenza and other communicable diseases in 2020, and likely reflects the wider effects of public health measures to reduce transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in the Australian community.

Keywords: Australia; child; communicable disease; public health surveillance; rare disease.

MeSH terms

Australia / epidemiology
COVID-19*
Child
Female
HIV Infections*
Humans
Infant, Newborn
Pregnancy
Prospective Studies
SARS-CoV-2