FluCAN 2009: initial results from sentinel surveillance for adult XXXX in eight Australian hospitals.

@entity1 @entity683 @entity55
OBJECTIVE: To describe the epidemiology of adult @entity1 hospitalised with @entity683 or @entity55 during a pandemic season in a sentinel network in Australia. DESIGN, @entity1 AND SETTING: Prospective case series of adult hospital admissions to eight acute care general public hospitals (Influenza Complications Alert Network [Flu CAN] sentinel hospitals) in six Australian jurisdictions, 1 July to 4 December 2009. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Demographic, clinical and outcome measures in @entity1 admitted with laboratory-confirmed pandemic (H1N1) 2009 @entity683 in the sentinel hospitals compared with data from national notifications and intensive care unit (ICU) surveillance; admissions for @entity55 over time in each jurisdiction. RESULTS: During 190 hospital-weeks of observation, there were 538 @entity683 admissions. Of these, 465 @entity1 (86.4%) had the pandemic strain, representing 9.3% of total admissions with pandemic (H1N1) 2009 @entity683 (n = 4992) recorded nationally in 2009. Of these @entity1 , 250/465 (53.8%) were @entity1 , 67/453 (14.8%) were Indigenous, and the median age was 46 years (interquartile range, 29-58 years). Comorbidities were present in 354/464 @entity1 (76.3%), and 40 were pregnant (30.3% of @entity1 aged 15-49 years). FluCAN reported that 102 @entity1 (21.9%) were admitted to ICUs, and of @entity1 admitted to hospital, 26 (5.6%) died. FluCAN results were very similar to national notification data and published ICU admissions data. Of those who were followed to 30 days after discharge, 30 (6.5%) were readmitted. Of 1468 @entity1 hospitalised with @entity55 , 718 (48.9%) were tested for @entity683 and 163 (11.1%) were co-infected with the pandemic strain. CONCLUSIONS: Sentinel surveillance systems can provide important and reliable information in a timely fashion and can monitor changes in severity of @entity683 during a pandemic season.
