The Laboratory Virology and Serology Reporting Scheme, 1991 to 2000

The Laboratory Virology and Serology (LabVISE) Reporting Scheme is a passive surveillance scheme based on voluntary reports of infectious agents contributed by virology and serology laboratories around Australia. This article reports on the LabVISE data collected between 1991 and 2000 and was published in Communicable Diseases Intelligence Vol 26 No 3, September 2002. This article can be viewed in 15 HTML documents and is also available in PDF format.

Page last updated: 03 October 2002

A print friendly PDF version is available from this Communicable Diseases Intelligence issue's table of contents.


Results - Part A: General results

LabVISE reports 1991 to 2000

Between 1991 and 2000, LabVISE received 340,730 reports from between 13 and 26 laboratories. The numbers of reports and reporting laboratories are shown in Table 2. There has been a decline in both the number of reports and the number of contributing laboratories to LabVISE over the period 1991 to 2000 (Figure 1).

Table 2. Laboratory reports to LabVISE, 1991 to 2000, by laboratory

Jurisdiction
Laboratory name
1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000
Australian Capital Territory The Canberra Hospital
690
613
808
1,020
800
395
621
212
49
241
New South Wales Institute of Clinical Pathology & Medical Research, Westmead
4,319
4,132
3,757
3,349
1,407
1,356
786
1,430
1,527
1,741
Prince Henry/Prince of Wales Hospitals, Sydney
1,428
1,327
126
2,151
1,477
40
-
-
-
-
New Children's Hospital, Westmead
892
845
779
764
677
499
975
1,101
1,253
924
Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Camperdown
-
-
-
136
371
288
259
483
573
542
South West Area Pathology Service, Liverpool
-
792
1,268
1,695
1,713
1,203
997
1,206
1,001
346
New England Pathology
126
151
160
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Royal North Shore Hospital
-
-
-
18
296
159
291
-
-
-
Northern Territory Alice Springs Hospital
-
-
-
-
-
113
-
-
-
-
Queensland Lynch Laboratory, Rockhampton
1,085
1,540
803
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Queensland Medical Laboratory, West End
-
3,750
8,751
10,012
10,793
7,953
5,219
2,944
7,669
4,403
Townsville General Hospital
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
98
207
110
State Health Laboratory, Brisbane
4,619
5,581
6,935
6,011
3,630
4,224
2,249
-
-
-
Toowoomba Pathology Laboratory
129
17
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Nambour Hospital
-
-
4
99
52
-
-
-
-
-
South Australia Institute of Medical and Veterinary Science, Adelaide
3,890
5,195
5,335
5,061
3,776
2,009
5,258
5,481
2,486
4,938
Tasmania Northern Tasmanian Pathology Service, Launceston
-
76
222
161
184
95
110
156
105
128
Royal Hobart Hospital, Hobart
231
273
306
472
596
293
109
234
24
-
Hobart Pathology
19
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Victoria Monash Medical Centre, Melbourne
-
-
222
569
798
772
765
421
728
259
Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne
1,985
2,107
2,558
2,983
2,451
2,506
2,455
2,341
2,154
1,404
Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory, Fairfield
4,791
4,991
5,061
4,024
4,102
2,367
1,623
1,463
1,954
1,936
Microbiological Diagnostic Unit, University of Melbourne
247
172
166
152
126
111
123
3
-
-
Commonwealth Serum Laboratories, Melbourne
-
-
-
59
36
-
9
-
-
-
Unipath Laboratories
-
-
-
-
436
251
-
-
-
-
Western Australia PathCentre Virology, Perth
5,132
5,890
6,219
6,521
6,603
4,813
3,746
4,030
5,571
5,187
Princess Margaret Hospital, Perth
990
1,386
1,266
1,785
1,252
1,687
1,387
885
1,314
1,398
Western Diagnostic Pathology
-
-
-
-
900
2,951
1,691
1,086
173
107
Royal Perth Hospital
-
-
-
-
-
185
85
-
-
-
Total*  
30,573
38,838
44,746
47,042
42,476
34,270
28,758
23,575
26,788
23,664

* Includes reports of organisms not analysed in LabVISE since 1997.


Top of pageFigure 1. Total annual number of reports and number of laboratories reporting to LabVISE, 1991 to 2000

Figure 1. Total annual number of reports and number of laboratories reporting to LabVISE, 1991 to 2000

The number of organisms reported to LabVISE was reduced in 1995. This report will focus on the current list of organisms, most of which have been reported for the full study period (1991-2000). The number of reports for these organisms by year of collection and State or Territory of patient's residence is shown in Table 3. The proportion of reports from each Australian State and Territory has varied over the study period (Figure 2).

Table 3. Laboratory reports to LabVISE, 1991 to 2000, by State or Territory

Year
ACT NSW NT Qld SA Tas Vic WA Australia
1991
436
4,498
0
3,969
2,596
145
4,568
3,076
19,288
1992
345
5,101
65
7,309
2,984
233
5,025
4,074
25,136
1993
621
4,475
57
10,851
2,833
380
5,473
3,529
28,219
1994
766
4,484
259
10,731
2,583
351
5,137
3,757
28,068
1995
596
3,958
749
7,318
1,897
436
4,857
3,777
23,588
1996
444
3,141
1,256
9,508
1,843
294
4,820
6,671
27,977
1997
592
3,437
1,030
7,032
5,249
229
4,939
6,011
28,519
1998
419
4,110
670
2,758
5,415
366
4,270
5,208
23,216
1999
283
4,386
1,092
6,337
2,505
158
4,822
6,894
26,477
2000
397
3,688
776
3,729
4,964
179
3,527
6,402
23,662
Total
4,899
41,278
5,954
69,542
32,869
2,771
47,438
49,399
254,150


Figure 2. Laboratory reports to LabVISE, 1991 to 2000, by State or Territory

Figure 2. Laboratory reports to LabVISE, 1991 to 2000, by State or Territory

Completeness of data

Table 4 shows the completeness of data in four key (but not mandatory) fields common to LabVISE for the whole period from 1991 to 2000. While sex and diagnosis data were reported consistently over the years for the majority of LabVISE reports, in recent years important data such as age has been incomplete in more than half of all records. The completeness of data varied by laboratory, pathogen, and year.

Table 4. Completeness of data in key fields in LabVISE, 1991 to 2000

Year
Sex*
% complete
Age
% complete
Postcode
% complete
Diagnosis
% complete
1991
97.6
77.0
2.9
100.0
1992
98.6
80.7
13.5
100.0
1993
98.9
83.1
51.6
99.9
1994
98.6
84.6
66.8
100.0
1995
98.9
91.5
74.8
99.9
1996
99.1
81.6
62.9
100.0
1997
99.1
80.9
60.9
99.9
1998
99.2
79.3
50.6
99.2
1999
99.3
54.7
74.9
94.2
2000
99.2
31.2
70.0
87.0

* Proportion of records identified as male or female, all the remainder were marked 'U' for unknown.


This article was published in Communicable Diseases Intelligence Volume 26, No 3, September 2002

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