Gonorrhoea enhanced surveillance for indigenous status and risk factors in the south-eastern Sydney population.

Background: Gonorrhoea incidence is increasing in the Australian population. As a laboratory notifiable disease in NSW, information is not routinely available on indigenous status, sexual preference or other risk factors for infection. We conducted a 12-month pilot of enhanced surveillance in south-eastern Sydney in order to assess the feasibility of gathering this additional information.

Rotavirus vaccination one year on..

The rotavirus vaccine was incorporated into the Australian National Immunisation Program from 1 July 2007. To measure early impact of the vaccine on rotavirus disease and the burden of gastroenteritis in young children, we examined 2 surveillance data sources, rotavirus isolates from selected New South Wales laboratories, and New South Wales Emergency Department (ED) visits assigned a gastroenteritis-related diagnosis. Between 2001 and 2008, weekly time series were prepared for 2 age groups representing children young enough to have been offered vaccination prior to the 2008 seasonal epidemic (< 15 months) and older children (15 months to 5 years).