A protracted outbreak of Hessarek infection associated with one brand of eggs—South Australia, March 2017 - July 2018.

Hessarek is an uncommon serotype in Australia. We report on the investigation of a protracted outbreak of 25 cases of Hessarek gastroenteritis in which cases were defined as any laboratory confirmed case of Hessarek notified to the South Australian Communicable Disease Control Branch from 1st March 2017 to 3 July 2018. We conducted a descriptive case series investigation interviewing all cases and 17 (68%) reported consuming brand X free-range eggs.

Once-daily opioids for chronic dyspnea: a dose increment and pharmacovigilance study.

Context: Randomized controlled trials can answer questions of efficacy, but long-term pharmacovigilance studies generate complementary safety data.

Objectives: Level I evidence supports short-term efficacy of opioids in reducing chronic refractory dyspnea. This study aimed to determine the minimum effective once-daily dose of sustained-release morphine, and whether net clinical benefits are sustained safely.

Benchmarking epidemiological characteristics of cervical cancer in advance of change in screening practice and commencement of vaccination.

Objectives: To investigate trends in cervical cancer incidence, mortality and survival by histology for benchmarking purposes ahead of practice change and the introduction of Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccine.

Methods: Using data from the South Australian Cancer Registry, age-standardised rates are presented for four-year periods from 1977 to 2004. Socio-demographic and secular predictors of glandular as opposed to squamous cancers are investigated, using multivariable logistic regression.

Endometrial cells as a predictor of uterine cancer.

Background: With the recent cervix screening national guidelines recommending against reporting of benign endometrial cells, we examined South Australian data to see what impact this would have on detecting uterine cancers.

Aims: To test whether benign endometrial cells detected in cervical cytology testing confer an increased risk of uterine cancer, and to ascertain what percentage of uterine cancers will be missed in cervical screening programs if these cells are not reported.

Methods: The study was a retrospective cohort design of 1585 women with shed endometrial cells, each matched with three women without shed cells.