Kelly, Paul M., Kotsimbos, Tom, Reynolds, Anna, Wood-baker, Richard, Hancox, Bob, Brown, Simon G.A., Holmes, Mark, Simpson, Graham, Bowler, Simon, Waterer, Grant, Irving, Louis B., Jenkins, Christine, Thompson, Phillip J., and Cheng, Allen C. (2011) FluCAN 2009: initial results from sentinel surveillance for adult influenza and pneumonia in eight Australian hospital. Medical Journal of Australia, 194 (4). pp. 169-174.

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Abstract

Objective: To describe the epidemiology of adult patients hospitalised with influenza or pneumonia during a pandemic season in a sentinel network in Australia.

Design, participants and setting: Prospective case series of adult hospital admissions to eight acute care general public hospitals (Influenza Complications Alert Network [Flu CAN] sentinel hospitals) in six Australian jurisdictions, 1 July to 4 December 2009.

Main outcome measures: Demographic, clinical and outcome measures in patients admitted with laboratory-confirmed pandemic (H1N1) 2009 influenza in the sentinel hospitals compared with data from national notifications and intensive care unit (ICU) surveillance; admissions for influenza and pneumonia over time in each jurisdiction.

Results: During 190 hospital-weeks of observation, there were 538 influenza admissions. Of these, 465 patients (86.4%) had the pandemic strain, representing 9.3% of total admissions with pandemic (H1N1) 2009 influenza (n = 4992) recorded nationally in 2009. Of these patients, 250/465 (53.8%) were women, 67/453 (14.8%) were Indigenous, and the median age was 46 years (interquartile range, 29–58 years). Comorbidities were present in 354/464 patients (76.3%), and 40 were pregnant (30.3% of women aged 15–49 years). FluCAN reported that 102 patients (21.9%) were admitted to ICUs, and of patients admitted to hospital, 26 (5.6%) died. FluCAN results were very similar to national notification data and published ICU admissions data. Of those who were followed to 30 days after discharge, 30 (6.5%) were readmitted. Of 1468 patients hospitalised with pneumonia, 718 (48.9%) were tested for influenza and 163 (11.1%) were co-infected with the pandemic strain.

Conclusions: Sentinel surveillance systems can provide important and reliable information in a timely fashion and can monitor changes in severity of influenza during a pandemic season.

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