Clinical diagnosis and chemical confirmation of ciguatera fish poisoning in New South Wales, Australia.

Ciguatera fish poisoning is common in tropical and sub-tropical areas and larger fish (> 10 kg) are more susceptible to toxin accumulation with age. Although the coastal climate of northern New South Wales is considered sub-tropical, prior to 2014 there has only been 1 documented outbreak of ciguatera fish poisoning from fish caught in the region. During February and March 2014, 2 outbreaks of ciguatera fish poisoning involved 4 and 9 individuals, respectively, both following consumption of Spanish mackerel from northern New South Wales coastal waters (Evans Head and Scotts Head).

A field study of household attack rates and the effectiveness of macrolide antibiotics in reducing household transmission of pertussis.

Bordetella pertussis (whooping cough) is an endemic, highly contagious bacterial respiratory infection, which is notifiable to Australian state and territory health departments. Between 2008 and 2011 there was a substantial outbreak in New South Wales with an initial increase in cases occurring in North Coast New South Wales from late 2007. During September and October 2011 the North Coast Public Health Unit conducted a household study of secondary attack rates to assess the effectiveness of pertussis vaccination as well as the timely use of antibiotics in preventing household transmission.

Lessons from a respiratory illness outbreak in an aged-care facility.

This report outlines practical lessons learnt from an influenza-like outbreak in an aged-care facility in NSW, which affected 26 residents, resulted in 14 hospital admissions and was associated with six deaths. No common causative agent was identified. Key recommendations include: encouraging aged-care facilities to establish mechanisms that improve the early identification of outbreaks and timely implementation of outbreak control strategies; identifying strategies to inform general practitioners of outbreaks if they have patients residing in aged-care facilities; and improving the vaccination coverage of the aged-care workforce.

The role of television advertising in increasing pneumococcal vaccination coverage among the elderly, North Coast, New South Wales, 2006.

North Coast Area Health Service (NCAHS) conducted a seven week television advertising campaign to raise community awareness of the availability of free adult pneumococcal vaccination and to increase coverage among North Coast residents in high risk groups. Effectiveness of the campaign was evaluated by examining vaccine ordering patterns of North Coast vaccination providers from 2005/2006 as a proxy for vaccination coverage. In the months during and immediately following (June-September 2006) the advertising campaign, a significantly higher proportion of vaccines were despatched to North Coast immunisation service providers.

Immunisation attitudes, knowledge and practices of health professionals in regional NSW.

Objective: This study investigated the immunisation knowledge, attitudes and practices among health professionals in two regional Area Health Services of NSW with low and high immunisation rates. It also compared these factors between the areas and between the health professional groups.

Methods: A self-administered questionnaire was posted in 2006 to health professionals, located within the North Coast and Hunter New England Area Health Services, whose practice could include immunisation.