PathWest Paediatric Respiratory Pathogen Report – 6/02/2019 Page 1 of 5 Microbiology Surveillance Unit PathWest_Micro_Surveillance@health.wa.gov.au

Paediatric Respiratory Pathogen Report

Week 5, 28th January 2019 – 03rd February 2019

• RSV cases and proportion positive are at inter-seasonal levels

• Influenza proportion positive is above levels normally seen at this time of year, with the highest

proportion of cases in adult patients

Figure 1: The current season plotted against the Paediatric RSV Average Epidemic Curve. The average epidemic curve was constructed by

averaging all seasons measured at PathWest QE2 from 2007-2018. The high intensity threshold is 1.645 standard deviations above (upper 90%

CI) the average epidemic curve. Data represents all WA hospitalised paediatric patients tested by PathWest.

RSV proportion positive remains at inter-seasonal levels.

PathWest Paediatric Respiratory Pathogen Report – 6/02/2019 Page 2 of 5 Microbiology Surveillance Unit PathWest_Micro_Surveillance@health.wa.gov.au

Figure 2: Proportion positive (RSV & Influenza) or cases (other respiratory pathogens) for the current week (red line) plotted against the

historic range (grey box) and median (black line) for this week. Pie charts represent the breakdown influenza subtypes and count of each other

respiratory pathogen. Data represents hospitalised paediatric patients tested by PathWest. Historic data is for years 2007-2018.

Influenza proportion positive (10%) was higher than the historic median (2%) for this week. Of the five-

paediatric influenza cases this week, three were A/H1 and one was A/H3 (the remaining case was influenza

A unsubtyped at time of the report). There were four RSV hospitalisations this week, three were RSV-B and

one was RSV-A. Other respiratory virus detections were below the historic median this week.

PathWest Paediatric Respiratory Pathogen Report – 6/02/2019 Page 3 of 5 Microbiology Surveillance Unit PathWest_Micro_Surveillance@health.wa.gov.au

Figure 3: Hospitalised paediatric patients with RSV in Perth metropolitan region, in both Kimberley and Pilbara combined and in the remaining

regions combined.

All four RSV cases were in the metropolitan region this week.

Figure 4: Paediatric and adult hospitalised patients with RSV, 2014-2018

RSV cases in paediatric and adult hospitalised patients were low. Four children and one adult were

hospitalised with RSV this week.

PathWest Paediatric Respiratory Pathogen Report – 6/02/2019 Page 4 of 5 Microbiology Surveillance Unit PathWest_Micro_Surveillance@health.wa.gov.au

Figure 5: Hospitalised paediatric patients with influenza in the Perth metropolitan region, in both Kimberley and Pilbara combined and in the

remaining regions combined.

The majority of influenza cases (n=3, 60%) were in the metropolitan region and the remainder were in the

Goldfields (20%) and Kimberley (20%) regions.

Figure 6: Paediatric and adult hospitalised patients with influenza, 2014-2018

Hospitalised influenza cases remained high for this time of year, with five children and nineteen adults

hospitalised with influenza.

PathWest Paediatric Respiratory Pathogen Report – 6/02/2019 Page 5 of 5 Microbiology Surveillance Unit PathWest_Micro_Surveillance@health.wa.gov.au

Figure 7: Proportion positive of adult and paediatric influenza patients with average epidemic curves. Average epidemic curves were

constructed by averaging all seasons measured at PathWest QE2 from 2007-2018. Data excludes cases from the Kimberley/Pilbara region.

Influenza proportion positive decreased in both paediatric and adult hospitalised patients. Proportion

positive remains high compared to previous seasons for this time of year.