title: Potential for the Australian and New Zealand paediatric intensive care registry to enhance acute flaccid paralysis surveillance in Australia: a data-linkage study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Australia uses acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) surveillance to monitor its polio-free status. The World Health Organization criterion for a sensitive AFP surveillance system is the annual detection of at least one non-polio AFP case per 100,000 children aged less than 15 years, a target Australia has not consistently achieved. Children exhibiting AFP are likely to be hospitalised and may be admitted to an intensive care unit. This provides a potential opportunity for active AFP surveillance.
  
  
  METHODS
  A data-linkage study for the period from 1 January 2005 to 31 December 2008 compared 165 non-polio AFP cases classified by the Polio Expert Panel with 880 acute neurological presentations potentially compatible with AFP documented in the Australian and New Zealand Paediatric Intensive Care (ANZPIC) Registry.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Forty-two (25%) AFP cases classified by the Polio Expert Panel were matched to case records in the ANZPIC Registry. Of these, nineteen (45%) cases were classified as Guillain-Barré syndrome on both registries. Ten additional Guillain-Barré syndrome cases recorded in the ANZPIC Registry were not notified to the national AFP surveillance system.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The identification of a further ten AFP cases supports inclusion of intensive care units in national AFP surveillance, particularly specialist paediatric intensive care units, to identify AFP cases that may not otherwise be reported to the national surveillance system.
authors: Linda K
authors: LK
authors: Hobday
authors: Bruce R
authors: BR
authors: Thorley
authors: Janet
authors: J
authors: Alexander
authors: Thomas
authors: T
authors: Aitken
authors: Peter D
authors: PD
authors: Massey
authors: Michelle
authors: M
authors: Cretikos
authors: Anthony
authors: A
authors: Slater
authors: David N
authors: DN
authors: Durrheim
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001315:Australia / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D015278:Intensive Care Units, Pediatric / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D009520:New Zealand / Q000453:epidemiology; D010243:Paralysis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D011051:Poliomyelitis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D011159:Population Surveillance / Q000379:methods*; D012042:Registries
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