1. Parechovirus Genotype 3 Outbreak among Infants, New South Wales, Australia, 2013–2014
- Author
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Germaine Cumming, Ameneh Khatami, Brendan J. McMullan, Jennie Musto, Kit Leung, Oanh Nguyen, Mark J. Ferson, Georgina Papadakis, and Vicky Sheppeard
- Subjects
human parechovirus 3, piconarvirus ,infantile fever, neonatal infection, sepsis-like syndrome, skin rash, emerging infectious disease, public health surveillance, viruses, New South Wale ,human parechovirus 3 ,piconarvirus ,infantile fever ,neonatal infection ,Medicine ,Infectious and parasitic diseases ,RC109-216 - Abstract
From October 2013 through February 2014, human parechovirus genotype 3 infection was identified in 183 infants in New South Wales, Australia. Of those infants, 57% were male and 95% required hospitalization. Common signs and symptoms were fever >38°C (86%), irritability (80%), tachycardia (68%), and rash (62%). Compared with affected infants in the Northern Hemisphere, infants in New South Wales were slightly older, both sexes were affected more equally, and rash occurred with considerably higher frequency. The New South Wales syndromic surveillance system, which uses near real-time emergency department and ambulance data, was useful for monitoring the outbreak. An alert distributed to clinicians reduced unnecessary hospitalization for patients with suspected sepsis.
- Published
- 2015
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