Australian Influenza Surveillance 2010 - Latest report

The latest report from the Department of Health and Ageing in Australia, excerpt :

Report No. 37
Reporting period 11 to 17 September 2010

• Levels of influenza-like illness (ILI) in the community have continued to increase through most surveillance systems this reporting period. Local, regional and widespread activity was reported within jurisdictions. However, the number of laboratory confirmed notifications continued to decline.
• There were 502 laboratory confirmed notifications of influenza during this reporting period, including 358 pandemic (H1N1) 2009 cases. Notifications of laboratory confirmed influenza were highest in SA.
• Results from sentinel laboratory surveillance systems for this reporting period show that 14% of the respiratory tests conducted over this period were positive for influenza, which is a slight decrease from the last reporting period (16%). In 2010, a total of 848 specimens have been positive for influenza (of 11,501 specimens tested), of which 71% were pandemic (H1N1) 2009, 10% were A/H3N2 and 17% were influenza B.
• Up to 17 September 2010, there have been 5606 confirmed cases of influenza diagnosed in 2010.

Full report in PDF format is also available.