Australian Paediatric Surveillance Unit Annual Report 2018

Abstract

The Australian Paediatric Surveillance Unit (APSU) has been conducting active, prospective, national surveillance for rare diseases of children over the last 25 years with monthly reporting by paediatricians. Communicable diseases currently under surveillance include: acute flaccid paralysis (to identify potential cases of poliovirus infection); congenital cytomegalovirus infection; neonatal herpes simplex virus infection; perinatal exposure to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and paediatric HIV infection; juvenile onset recurrent respiratory papillomatosis; severe complications of influenza (undertaken during the influenza season June to September 2018); congenital rubella infection; and severe complications of varicella virus infection including neonatal and congenital varicella infection. Of related interest is the study of microcephaly in infants less than 12 months of age, for which monitoring commenced in relation to the emergence of Zika virus and finished at the end of July 2018.