Australian Sentinel Practices Research Network, 1 July to 30 September 2015.

The Australian Sentinel Practices Research Network was established in 1991 to provide a rapid, national, monitoring scheme for infectious diseases that can alert public health officials of epidemics before they arise. The network consists of general practitioners, throughout all 8 states and territories in Australia, who report presentations on a number of defined medical conditions each week. This report presents data from the second quarter of 2015 (1 April to 30 June) and includes the syndromic surveillance of influenza-like-illness, gastroenteritis, chicken pox, and shingles, and the virological surveillance of respiratory viruses including influenza A, influenza B, RSV and rhinovirus.

The Australian Sentinel Practices Research Network was established in 1991 to provide a rapid, national, monitoring scheme for infectious diseases that can alert public health officials of epidemics before they arise. The network consists of general practitioners, throughout all 8 states and territories in Australia, who report presentations on a number of defined medical conditions each week. This report presents data from the fourth quarter of 2013 (1 October to 31 December) and includes the syndromic surveillance of influenza-like-illness, gastroenteritis, chicken pox, and shingles, and the virological surveillance of respiratory viruses including influenza A, influenza B, RSV and rhinovirus.

The Australian Sentinel Practices Research Network was established in 1991 to provide a rapid, national, monitoring scheme for infectious diseases that can alert public health officials of epidemics before they arise. The network consists of general practitioners, throughout all 8 states and territories in Australia, who report presentations on a number of defined medical conditions each week. This report presents data from the fourth quarter of 2015 (1 October to 31 December 2015) and includes the syndromic surveillance of influenza-like-illness, gastroenteritis, chicken pox, and shingles, and the virological surveillance of respiratory viruses including influenza A, influenza B, RSV and rhinovirus.

This version of the ASPREN Q3 2012 quarterly report, as published in CDI volume 37 issue 3, is an updated publication of the report; an earlier version of the Q3 2012 report was published in CDI volume 37 issue 1. Please be advised that minor differences in wording exist between the two published versions. The Australian Sentinel Practices Research Network was established in 1991 to provide a rapid, national, monitoring scheme for infectious diseases that can alert public health officials of epidemics before they arise. The network consists of general practitioners, throughout all 8 states and territories in Australia, who report presentations on a number of defined medical conditions each week. This report presents data from the third quarter of 2012 (1 July to 30 September) and includes the syndromic surveillance of influenza-like-illness, gastroenteritis, chicken pox, and shingles, and the virological surveillance of respiratory viruses including influenza A, influenza B, RSV and rhinovirus.

The Australian Sentinel Practices Research Network was established in 1991 to provide a rapid, national, monitoring scheme for infectious diseases that can alert public health officials of epidemics before they arise. The network consists of general practitioners, throughout all 8 states and territories in Australia, who report presentations on a number of defined medical conditions each week. This report presents data from the third quarter of 2016 ( 1 April to 30 June 2016) and includes the syndromic surveillance of influenza-like-illness, gastroenteritis, chickenpox, and shingles, and the virological surveillance of respiratory viruses including influenza A, influenza B, RSV and rhinovirus.

The Australian Sentinel Practices Research Network was established in 1991 to provide a rapid, national, monitoring scheme for infectious diseases that can alert public health officials of epidemics before they arise. The network consists of general practitioners, throughout all 8 states and territories in Australia, who report presentations on a number of defined medical conditions each week. This report presents data from the first quarter of 2013 (1 January to 31 March) and includes the syndromic surveillance of influenza-like-illness, gastroenteritis, chickenpox, and shingles, and the virological surveillance of respiratory viruses including influenza A, influenza B, RSV and rhinovirus.

The Australian Sentinel Practices Research Network was established in 1991 to provide a rapid, national, monitoring scheme for infectious diseases that can alert public health officials of epidemics before they arise. The network consists of general practitioners, throughout all 8 states and territories in Australia, who report presentations on a number of defined medical conditions each week. This report presents data from the 1st quarter of 2016 (1 January to 31 March 2016) and includes the syndromic surveillance of influenza-like-illness, gastroenteritis, chickenpox, and shingles, and the virological surveillance of respiratory viruses including influenza A, influenza B, RSV and rhinovirus.

This version of the ASPREN Q3 2012 quarterly report, as published in CDI volume 37 issue 1, has been superseded by a later version of the Q3 2012 report, which was published in CDI volume 37 issue 3. Please be advised that minor differences in wording exist between the two published versions. The Australian Sentinel Practices Research Network was established in 1991 to provide a rapid, national, monitoring scheme for infectious diseases that can alert public health officials of epidemics before they arise. The network consists of general practitioners, throughout all 8 states and territories in Australia, who report presentations on a number of defined medical conditions each week. This report presents data from the third quarter of 2012 (1 July to 30 September).

The Australian Sentinel Practices Research Network was established in 1991 to provide a rapid, national, monitoring scheme for infectious diseases that can alert public health officials of epidemics before they arise. The network consists of general practitioners, throughout all 8 states and territories in Australia, who report presentations on a number of defined medical conditions each week. This report presents data from the third quarter of 2013 (1 July to 30 September).

The Australian Sentinel Practices Research Network was established in 1991 to provide a rapid, national, monitoring scheme for infectious diseases that can alert public health officials of epidemics before they arise. The network consists of general practitioners, throughout all 8 states and territories in Australia, who report presentations on a number of defined medical conditions each week.

The Australian Sentinel Practices Research Network was established in 1991 to provide a rapid, national, monitoring scheme for infectious diseases that can alert public health officials of epidemics before they arise. The network consists of general practitioners, throughout all 8 states and territories in Australia, who report presentations on a number of defined medical conditions each week. This report presents data from the 3rd quarter of 2016.

The Australian Sentinel Practices Research Network was established in 1991 to provide a rapid, national, monitoring scheme for infectious diseases that can alert public health officials of epidemics before they arise. The network consists of general practitioners, throughout all 8 states and territories in Australia, who report presentations on a number of defined medical conditions each week.

The Australian Sentinel Practices Research Network was established in 1991 to provide a rapid, national, monitoring scheme for infectious diseases that can alert public health officials of epidemics before they arise. The network consists of general practitioners, throughout all 8 states and territories in Australia, who report presentations on a number of defined medical conditions each week.

Fresh produce is an important source of foodborne outbreaks in Australia. Using descriptive analysis, we examined confirmed and suspected foodborne outbreaks associated with fresh produce in Australia recorded in the OzFoodNet outbreak register from 2001 to 2017. The outbreak register contains reports of foodborne disease outbreaks collected by OzFoodNet epidemiologists and public health officials. A fresh produce outbreak was defined as the occurrence of two or more cases of the same illness in which the investigation had implicated a common food and this food contained fresh produce. A total of 92 fresh produce outbreaks were reported, encompassing 3,422 reported illnesses, 446 hospitalisations and four deaths. Of these outbreaks, 76.1% (70/92) were caused by a known pathogen, with the majority caused by either Salmonella enterica (n = 30) or Norovirus (n = 29). Most outbreaks (77.2%; 71/92) were associated with consumption of foods containing multiple ingredients, some of which were not fresh produce. The largest outbreaks associated with a single fresh produce item included bean sprouts contaminated with S. enterica serovar Saintpaul (419 illnesses and 76 hospitalisations) and semi-dried tomatoes contaminated with Hepatitis A (372 illnesses and 169 hospitalisations). Restaurants (45.7%; n = 42/92) and commercial catering (15.2%: n = 14/92) were common settings for fresh produce outbreaks. Outbreaks occurred in all states and territories of Australia and in all seasons, with an increased frequency in the warmer months (September-May). Although the number of fresh produce-associated outbreaks did not seem to be increasing in Australia, integrated surveillance is needed to rapidly identify sources of infection due to the propensity of these outbreaks to be large and widespread.

Traditional surveillance for respiratory viruses relies on symptom detection and laboratory detection during medically attended encounters for acute respiratory infection/influenza‐like illness (ARI/ILI). Ecological momentary reporting using text messages is a novel method for surveillance. This study compares respiratory viral activity detected through longitudinal community‐based surveillance using text message responses for sample acquisition and testing to respiratory viral activity obtained from hospital laboratory data from the same community. We demonstrate a significant correlation between community‐ and hospital laboratory‐based surveillance for most respiratory viruses, although the relative proportions of viruses detected in the community and hospital differed significantly.