Whooping cough in Australia

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,25070363-5006009,00.html (http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,25070363-5006009,00.html)

Inoculation rates worst among Sydney's richest suburbs


By Kate Sikora and Angela Saurine

February 18, 2009 12:00am

SYDNEY'S richest suburbs have the country's worst immunisation rates, with up to 20 per cent of toddlers left unvaccinated against deadly diseases.

Medicare figures show that in the November 2008 quarter Sydney's Eastern Suburbs, including Double Bay and Vaucluse, was ranked the worst out of Australia's 113 divisions, with 80 per cent of children immunised.

The Northern Rivers, which covers Lismore, Alstonville and Byron Bay, followed close behind.

The figures come as a whooping cough epidemic is sweeping NSW, with at least 8000 cases reported last year.

Professor Robert Booy, from the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance at the Children's Hospital at Westmead, said it was alarming that some people could be so misinformed on immunisation.

"There is an assumption by some that these diseases have gone away so why do I need to vaccinate my child? The reason they have gone away is because most people are protecting their children," he said.

Despite the tears, more than 50 mums took their children to Mosman Community Centre yesterday to be immunised against a range of diseases, including tetanus, polio and diphtheria.

Miriam Morgan's son James, 4, put on a brave face while he received his shot.
"My father had polio and my brother nearly died of meningitis, so I think it's very important," Mrs Morgan said.

His friend Xavier King, also 4, wasn't quite as brave, letting out a blood-curdling scream as he received his jabs.

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,27574,24889587-5006009,00.html (http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,27574,24889587-5006009,00.html)

Killer whooping cough an epidemic in NSW


Article from:
EXCLUSIVE by Kate Sikora


January 09, 2009 12:00am

WHOOPING cough has reached epidemic proportions in NSW with 8328 people infected last year - the highest level in almost 20 years.

Once considered a childhood disease, health authorities are warning people to have a booster shot, with many elderly and adults being stricken by the potentially fatal infection.

Last month, 433 cases were reported in the Wollongong/Shoalhaven region alone. Experts are at a loss to explain the sudden rise.

Whooping cough, also known as pertussis, is a highly-contagious disease caused by a bacterial throat infection.

In 1991, when the disease first had to be reported under the Public Health Act, there were 217 cases.

Whooping cough symptoms: What to look for (http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/factsheets/infectious/pertussis.html%20)

It jumped to 4438 in 2001, the highest level previously reached.

South East/Illawarra Area Health Service public health director Professor Mark Ferson said the disease was rife in the community.

"We know it's cyclical because before vaccination was around, there were other peaks," he said. "We are getting one of those peaks now."

Despite some parents refusing to have their children vaccinated, the majority of the whooping cough cases in the Wollongong region last month were vaccinated.

An outbreak occurred on the Central Coast and in western Sydney last year, with the highly contagious disease spreading through communities.

Other states are also reporting similar peaks as it sweeps through Australia.

Symptoms can mirror other illnesses such as colds, allowing whooping cough to go undetected for several weeks. "The highest rates are in school children so we are hoping that with the school holidays we will see the numbers drop," Professor Ferson said.

"We know that the vaccination works. Before vaccination there were hundreds of children dying. Clearly the disease is going around."

It is most dangerous in babies who can get bloodshot eyes from the infection. Some can even crack ribs through violent coughing attacks.
Savannah George, aged 14 weeks, has had whooping cough since she was two weeks old.

Currently in Sydney Children's Hospital, Savannah has turned blue several times, terrifying her mum Raylene, from Berkeley, near Wollongong.

"They say it is the 100-day cough and I have been telling people she is going to prove it," she said.

"Hopefully we can go home soon and celebrate Christmas."

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

Read the comments in the article above.

Amazing... just think. A trip up to 10,000 feet in a twin engine aircraft (http://forums.beyondvaccination.com/showthread.php?t=550)would have saved Australian taxpayers thousands of dollars on that one baby in the first post, alone...

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15955150?dopt=Abstract

Respirology. (javascript:AL_get(this, 'jour', 'Respirology.');) 2005 Jun;10(3):359-64.
Related Articles (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&DbFrom=pubmed&Cmd=Link&LinkName=pubmed_pubmed&LinkReadableName=Related%20Articles&IdsFromResult=15955150&ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsP anel.Pubmed_RVAbstract), Links (javascript:PopUpMenu2_Set(Menu15955150);)
(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/utils/fref.fcgi?PrId=3046&itool=Abstract-def&uid=15955150&db=pubmed&url=http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/resolve/openurl?genre=article&sid=nlm:pubmed&issn=1323-7799&date=2005&volume=10&issue=3&spage=359)
Cough symptoms in children aged 5-14 years in Sydney, Australia: non-specific cough or unrecognized pertussis?

Cagney M (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=Search&Term=%22Cagney%20M%22%5BAuthor%5D&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsP anel.Pubmed_RVAbstract), MacIntyre CR (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=Search&Term=%22MacIntyre%20CR%22%5BAuthor%5D&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsP anel.Pubmed_RVAbstract), McIntyre P (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=Search&Term=%22McIntyre%20P%22%5BAuthor%5D&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsP anel.Pubmed_RVAbstract), Torvaldsen S (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=Search&Term=%22Torvaldsen%20S%22%5BAuthor%5D&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsP anel.Pubmed_RVAbstract), Melot V (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=Search&Term=%22Melot%20V%22%5BAuthor%5D&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsP anel.Pubmed_RVAbstract).

School of Public Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to estimate the community prevalence of coughing symptoms, consistent with surveillance definitions for pertussis, and doctor-diagnosed pertussis in children aged 5-14 years. METHODOLOGY: A telephone survey of a cross-sectional community sample of parents regarding their child's cough symptoms in the previous 12 months was undertaken in a representative Australian urban region. RESULTS: In 2020 interviews, parents reported that 22% of children had a cough lasting 2 weeks or longer in the preceding 12 months, and 14% (283) had additional symptoms meeting the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) case definition for pertussis. A cough meeting the case definition was significantly more commonly reported by parents of children aged 5-9 years (17%; P < 0.001) but reported exposure to diagnosed pertussis in such cases was significantly more common in children aged 10-14 years (4.3%; odds ratio 12.8; P < 0.01). Parents of 90% of children meeting the CDC case definition sought medical advice.

A diagnosis of pertussis was reported in only 1.2% of cases, which extrapolates to an annual incidence of doctor-diagnosed pertussis of 347/100,000 (95% confidence interval, 140-714 per 100,000).

This contrasts with 29/100,000 notified cases in the same age group, time period and geographic area.

CONCLUSION: Cough episodes meeting a clinical case definition for pertussis commonly used in surveillance are reported by a high proportion of carers of school-aged children in Australia.

The majority of children who met the CDC and Australian case definitions for pertussis and sought medical attention were not identified as potentially having pertussis, suggesting underdiagnosis of pertussis.

Even if less than half of this is true pertussis, the potential impact in terms of transmission of pertussis in the community is likely to be high.

The reported incidence of doctor-diagnosed disease estimated from this survey was at least five and up to 20 times the official notification rate.

More work needs to be done in raising awareness among medical practitioners of pertussis as a differential diagnosis in older children and adolescents with cough.

Publication Types:

PMID: 15955150 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17724997

Commun Dis Intell. (http://javascript<b></b>:AL_get(this, 'jour', 'Commun Dis Intell.');) 2007 Jun;31(2):205-15. Links (http://javascript<b></b>:PopUpMenu2_Set(Menu17724997);)

Pertussis epidemiology in Australia over the decade 1995-2005--trends by region and age group.

Quinn HE (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=Search&Term=%22Quinn%20HE%22%5BAuthor%5D&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsP anel.Pubmed_DiscoveryPanel.Pubmed_RVAbstractPlus), McIntyre PB (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=Search&Term=%22McIntyre%20PB%22%5BAuthor%5D&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsP anel.Pubmed_DiscoveryPanel.Pubmed_RVAbstractPlus).
National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance of Vaccine Preventable Diseases, The Children's Hospital at Westmead, University of Sydney, New South Wales. helenq@chw.edu.au
Important changes have occurred in the National Immunisation Program for pertussis during the decade 1995-2005, including the introduction of acellular pertussis vaccine for all doses, removal from the schedule of the booster dose at 18 months, and the introduction of a booster dose for adolescents. In addition, the coverage of pertussis vaccine at 12 and 24 months has substantially increased as recorded by Australian Bureau of Statistics surveys and the Australian Childhood Immunisation Register. There were 75,458 notifications nationally between 1995 and 2005, with little change in the annual number of notifications at the national level but with periodic and dramatic changes in the age distribution of notified cases. Pertussis is well controlled in the 1-4 and 5-9 year age groups, and the highest annual notification rates continue to be in infants under 6 months of age. Adolescents aged 10-19 years had high notification rates in all states and territories, over this period, but 63% of notifications are now in the 20-59 year age range. Following the introduction of a fifth dose for adolescents, the current focus should be on protecting infants too young to be vaccinated and further defining the true morbidity of the disease in the elderly population.
PMID: 17724997 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Related Articles


Effect of the preschool pertussis booster on national notifications of disease in Australia. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14614366?ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsP anel.Pubmed_DiscoveryPanel.Pubmed_Discovery_RA&linkpos=1&log$=relatedarticles&logdbfrom=pubmed) [Pediatr Infect Dis J. 2003]
Impact of a pertussis booster vaccination program in adolescents and adults on the epidemiology of pertussis in Austria. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17721375?ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsP anel.Pubmed_DiscoveryPanel.Pubmed_Discovery_RA&linkpos=2&log$=relatedarticles&logdbfrom=pubmed) [Pediatr Infect Dis J. 2007]
Pertussis notifications in Australia, 1991 to 1997. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9188218?ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsP anel.Pubmed_DiscoveryPanel.Pubmed_Discovery_RA&linkpos=3&log$=relatedarticles&logdbfrom=pubmed) [Commun Dis Intell. 1997]
ReviewVaccine preventable diseases and vaccination coverage in Australia, 1993-1998. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12049363?ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsP anel.Pubmed_DiscoveryPanel.Pubmed_Discovery_RA&linkpos=4&log$=relatedreviews&logdbfrom=pubmed) [Commun Dis Intell. 2000]
ReviewPertussis immunisation in adolescents and adults--Bordetella pertussis epidemiology should guide vaccination recommendations. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16805708?ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsP anel.Pubmed_DiscoveryPanel.Pubmed_Discovery_RA&linkpos=5&log$=relatedreviews&logdbfrom=pubmed) [Expert Opin Biol Ther. 2006]

» See Reviews... (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&DbFrom=pubmed&Cmd=Link&LinkName=pubmed_pubmed_reviews&LinkReadableName=Related Reviews&IdsFromResult=17724997&ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsP anel.Pubmed_DiscoveryPanel.Pubmed_Discovery_RA&log$=relatedreviews&logdbfrom=pubmed) | » See All... (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&DbFrom=pubmed&Cmd=Link&LinkName=pubmed_pubmed&LinkReadableName=Related Articles&IdsFromResult=17724997&ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsP anel.Pubmed_DiscoveryPanel.Pubmed_Discovery_RA&log$=relatedarticles&logdbfrom=pubmed)
I love the type here.

Here is the link to the actual article (http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/cda-cdi31suppl.htm~cda-cdi31suppl-3.htm~cda-cdi31suppl-3i.htm). Nice graph.

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

This is where you go to find out what and where in terms of diseases in australia:

http://www9.health.gov.au/cda/Source/CDA-index.cfm

[deesalie]

That notifiable diseases link is really interesting! In the weekly reporting list, it has each individual state, but then the last column is Aust YTD... any idea what Aust YTD means?

[Wonder-Full]

Year To Date

[deesalie]

ah, thanks :)