Broom Annette K, David W Smith
The Western Australian Centre for Pathology and Medical Research, Locked Bag 2009, Nedlands, WA 6909.
Commun Dis Intell Q Rep. 2004;28(2):169-74. doi: 10.33321/cdi.2004.28.13.
In the winter of 2003 Western Australia experienced its largest epidemic of influenza for at least five years, with activity peaking in August and September. The season was short resulting in very high numbers of cases during the peak weeks. Activity in country areas followed the peak of Metropolitan activity. Influenza A virus was detected in 28.3 per cent of the sentinel samples, and influenza B in less than one per cent. Both routine and sentinel detections and the overall estimates of influenza-like illnesses (ILI) seen by general practitioners at sentinel practices peaked in August and September 2003. The combination of influenza detections and an increase in ILI seemed to be the most accurate predictor of the beginning of winter influenza activity. There was a shift in age distribution for influenza A compared with 2003. Both the sentinel surveillance and routine samples demonstrated an increase of influenza in children and young adults. The majority of influenza A isolates were identified as A/Fujian/411/2002-like, a variant of the A/Moscow strain included in the vaccine. Despite this mismatch there did not seem to have been any noticeable increase in the risk of influenza infection in the vaccinated populations from the sentinel practices, nor was there a relative increase in disease among the highly vaccinated elderly population. A number of other respiratory viruses were identified as causes of influenza-like illness in the sentinel samples. Rhinoviruses and human metapneumovirus were the most common, the latter occurring mainly in adults.
2003年冬季，西澳大利亚州经历了至少五年来规模最大的流感疫情，疫情活动在8月和9月达到高峰。该季节较短，导致高峰周的病例数极高。农村地区的疫情活动紧随大城市地区之后达到高峰。在28.3%的哨点样本中检测到甲型流感病毒，乙型流感病毒的检测率不到1%。常规检测和哨点检测以及全科医生在哨点诊所所见到的流感样疾病（ILI）的总体估计数均在2003年8月和9月达到高峰。流感检测结果与ILI增加相结合似乎是冬季流感活动开始的最准确预测指标。与2003年相比，甲型流感的年龄分布有所变化。哨点监测和常规样本均显示儿童和年轻人中的流感病例有所增加。大多数甲型流感病毒分离株被鉴定为A/福建/411/2002样，这是疫苗中所含A/莫斯科毒株的一个变种。尽管存在这种不匹配情况，但来自哨点诊所的接种人群中流感感染风险似乎并未显著增加，在接种率高的老年人群中疾病也没有相对增加。在哨点样本中，还发现了一些其他呼吸道病毒是流感样疾病的病因。鼻病毒和人偏肺病毒最为常见，后者主要发生在成年人中。
