Screening for tuberculosis in migrants and visitors from high-incidence settings: present and future perspectives.

In most settings with a low incidence of tuberculosis (TB), foreign-born people make up the majority of TB cases, but the distribution of the TB risk among different migrant populations is often poorly quantified. In addition, screening practices for TB disease and latent TB infection (LTBI) vary widely. Addressing the risk of TB in international migrants is an essential component of TB prevention and care efforts in low-incidence countries, and strategies to systematically screen for, diagnose, treat and prevent TB among this group contribute to national and global TB elimination goals.

Birth outcomes for Australian mother-infant pairs who received an influenza vaccine during pregnancy, 2012-2014: The FluMum study.

Introduction: In Australia, influenza vaccination is recommended for all women who will be pregnant during the influenza season. Vaccine safety and effectiveness are key concerns and influencers of uptake for both vaccine providers and families. We assessed the safety of receiving an influenza vaccination during any trimester of pregnancy with respect to preterm births and infant birthweight.

Tuberculosis patients' knowledge and beliefs about tuberculosis: a mixed methods study from the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu.

Background: The setting for this study was the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu, an archipelago of 82 islands, located in the South Pacific Ocean. Our objective was to assess the knowledge, attitudes and practices of tuberculosis (TB) patients towards TB.

Methods: This was a descriptive study using qualitative and quantitative methods.

Evaluation of three population health capacity building projects delivered by videoconferencing in NSW.

Unlabelled: Three population health projects in falls prevention, smoking cessation and refugee health secured funding through the NSW Telehealth Initiative. All were capacity building projects delivered through live videoconferencing sessions between April and August 2007. Videoconferencing as a mode of delivery was evaluated from the perspective of those who delivered the projects.

The evaluation of web-based data collection for enhanced surveillance of cryptosporidiosis.

Following an increase in the number of people diagnosed with cryptosporidiosis in November 2005, the Communicable Diseases Branch initiated enhanced surveillance using a developmental version of NetEpi Collection, an open-source, web-based data collection tool. We evaluated the usefulness of NetEpi Collection for enhanced surveillance, using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Updated Guidelines for Evaluating Public Health Surveillance Systems as a guide. Most staff (73 per cent) who used NetEpi Collection found it easy to use.

EPIREVIEW. Pertussis in New South Wales, 1993-2005: the impact of vaccination policy on pertussis epidemiology.

Objective: To assess whether changes in vaccination policy have affected the epidemiology of pertussis in NSW between 1993 and 2005.

Methods: Surveillance data from the NSW Notifiable Diseases Database was reviewed for the period.

Results: 35,695 cases of pertussis were notified; annual incidence rates varied from 18.