Seasonality in testing and positive respiratory bacterial infections in the Australian Capital Territory, 1997–2007

Background Chlamydia pneumoniae (Cp) and Mycoplasma pneumoniae (Myco) bacteria are atypical pathogens that can cause pneumonia and exacerbate underlying conditions such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. In the Australian Capital Territory, there is limited information on how seasonal patterns for positive infections and testing may vary, a gap that has implications for control strategies. Methods We examined seasonal patterns of immunoassay results of patients from Canberra Hospital, Australia, who were tested for Cp and/or Myco. Pathology data, collected from August 1997 to March 2007 from 7,275 patients, were analysed with time series additive decomposition and time series regression. Results The proportion of positive Cp infections was highest in March and April (autumn) and lowest in June and August (winter). The proportion of positive Myco infections was highest in December and January (summer) and lowest in August (winter), even though testing for the pathogen peaked in winter with a low in summer. Models with a long-term trend and a variable for month were a better fit for the data than the null models for both infections. Conclusion We found differences in seasonal patterns of testing and in the proportion of positive infections. These findings suggest that preventative measures for common infections need to account for seasonal testing practices so as to build an accurate picture of temporal changes in these infections.

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Single institutional series of neuroendocrine tumours managed in the Australian capital territory.

Journal of Clinical Oncology ◽

10.1200/jco.2012.30.15_suppl.e14703 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 30 (15_suppl) ◽

pp. e14703-e14703

Author(s):

Laeeq Malik ◽

Yu Jo Chua ◽

Nadeem Butt ◽

Desmond Yip

Keyword(s):

Neuroendocrine Tumours ◽

Histological Grade ◽

Tumour Size ◽

Primary Tumour ◽

Limited Information ◽

Australian Capital Territory ◽

Long Term Outcome ◽

Male Predominance ◽

Australian Capital

e14703 Background: Neuroendocrine tumours (NETs) have been regarded as indolent tumors with significantly variable clinical behavior. Limited information is available on long-term clinical outcome and clinically applicable prognostic factors.We performed a retrospective review of NETS managed in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) over a 12-year period,with examination of epidemiology and various prognostic clinicopathologic factors. Methods: This multicenter analysis included patients in ACT and surrounding New South Wales treated with histologically proven neuroendocrine tumor (lung carcinoids excluded). The cases were identified from hospital databases. Data was analysed according to epidemiological, clinical and histopathological characteristics. Results: The cohort of 107 patients showed slight male predominance. Median age at diagnosis was 62 years and tumour size of 1.2 cm. The most common primary tumour site was jejunum/ileum (32%) followed by rectum (22%) and pancreas (11.2 %). Most patients had localised disease at initial diagnosis (n- 73/107 (68%). Distant metastases were seen in 32% (n-34/107) on initial staging with liver being most common site. Most patients were symptomatic at diagnosis while 22.4% cases were found incidentally. Second malignancies in particular of gastrointestinal origin were diagnosed in 33.6% (n-36/107). Surgical debulking was the most common treatment (59.8%) while 18% had multi-modality therapy. At a median followup of 25 months from diagnosis, 76 patients (78%) were still alive. Median time to first relapse was 15 months. 5 year survival rate was 75% for NETs originating from jejunum/ilieum on Kaplan-Meier analysis. Increasing age, tumor size, male gender, high histological grade, high Ki 67 index, raised plasma chromogranin A and urine 5 HIAA at the time of diagnosis were associated with shorter 5-year survival. Conclusions: The epidemiologic characteristics and long-term outcome in our series was comparable to reported studies from other centers. This analysis confirmed some important prognostic factors that could be considered for risk stratification and therapeutic management in patients with NETs.

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Spatial Analysis of the Neighborhood Risk Factors for Respiratory Health in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT): Implications for Emergency Planning

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph17176396 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 17 (17) ◽

pp. 6396

Author(s):

Sarah Davies ◽

Paul Konings ◽

Aparna Lal

Keyword(s):

Risk Factors ◽

Respiratory Health ◽

Socioeconomic Disadvantage ◽

Chronic Obstructive ◽

Australian Capital Territory ◽

Obstructive Pulmonary Disease ◽

Australian Capital ◽

Response Planning ◽

Emergency Response Planning ◽

Hospital Emergency Departments

The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) experienced the worst air quality in the world for several consecutive days following the 2019–2020 Australian bushfires. With a focus on asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), this retrospective study examined the neighborhood-level risk factors for these diseases from 2011 to 2013, including household distance to hospital emergency departments (ED) and general practices (GP) and area-level socioeconomic disadvantage and demographic characteristics at a high spatial resolution. Poisson and Geographically Weighted Poisson Regression (GWR) were compared to examine the need for spatially explicit models. GWR performed significantly better, with rates of both respiratory diseases positively associated with area-level socioeconomic disadvantage. Asthma rates were positively associated with increasing distance from a hospital. Increasing distance to GP was not associated with asthma or COPD rates. These results suggest that respiratory health improvements could be made by prioritizing areas of socioeconomic disadvantage. The ACT has a relatively high density of GP that is geographically well spaced. This distribution of GP could be leveraged to improve emergency response planning in the future.

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1478Extreme daily numbers of general practice encounters of asthma and allergic rhinitis in Australia

International Journal of Epidemiology ◽

10.1093/ije/dyab168.703 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 50 (Supplement_1) ◽

Author(s):

Charlotte Waudby ◽

Nicholas Osborne ◽

David Muscatello

Keyword(s):

Time Series ◽

General Practice ◽

Allergic Rhinitis ◽

Longitudinal Data ◽

Grass Pollen ◽

Pollen Season ◽

South Australia ◽

Australian Capital Territory ◽

Australian Capital ◽

Grass Pollen Season

Abstract Background Asthma affects approximately 11% of Australia’s population and allergic rhinitis 19%. Grass pollen is associated with asthma and allergic rhinitis exacerbations. This study tested the hypothesis that days with extreme numbers of general practice (GP) encounters for asthma and allergic rhinitis aligned with grass pollen season. Methods The MedicineInsight GP database contains longitudinal data on persons attending a sample of Australian GPs. We created time series of daily counts of asthma and allergic rhinitis encounters by state and territory to identify extreme encounter days; days with counts above the 99th percentile. Results Of 3,036,678 attendances during the study period, 2.4% were for asthma. There were 83 extreme encounter days during April to December, across Australia. Victoria and South Australia had the highest increase in attendances on extreme days. Allergic rhinitis encounters represented 0.9% of attendances. Of the 69 extreme allergic rhinitis encounter days across Australia, Victoria and Australian Capital Territory had the highest increase in attendances. Allergic rhinitis extreme days were clustered between mid-October and early December (72%), compared to 22% of the asthma extreme days. Conclusions Extreme asthma GP encounters were not as strongly associated with grass pollen season compared to allergic rhinitis encounters. Victoria had a high number of encounters on asthma and allergic rhinitis extreme days, many associated with thunderstorm asthma. Key messages Extreme asthma encounter days can be associated with cooler months, grass pollen season and school holidays. Extremes allergic rhinitis presentation days were aligned with grass pollen season.

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Molecular detection of Chlamydia Pneumoniae in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases with both real time polymerase chain reaction and polymerase chain reaction methods

Minerva Pneumologica ◽

10.23736/s0026-4954.19.01851-0 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 58 (2) ◽

Author(s):

Homa Alizadeh ◽

Naghmeh Bahrami ◽

Farzaneh Hosseini ◽

Abdolreza Mohamadnia

Keyword(s):

Polymerase Chain Reaction ◽

Real Time ◽

Chlamydia Pneumoniae ◽

Molecular Detection ◽

Pulmonary Diseases ◽

Chronic Obstructive ◽

Chain Reaction ◽

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases ◽

Polymerase Chain

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Fluctuations in Influenza Epidemics and Suicide Mortality: A Time-Series Regression of 13-Year Mortality Data

SSRN Electronic Journal ◽

10.2139/ssrn.3441827 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Sun Jae Jung ◽

Sung-Shil Lim ◽

Jin-Ha Yoon

Keyword(s):

Time Series ◽

Suicide Mortality ◽

Mortality Data ◽

Time Series Regression

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Microbiome in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: Role of Natural Products Against Microbial Pathogens

Current Medicinal Chemistry ◽

10.2174/0929867327666191213110551 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 27 (18) ◽

pp. 2931-2948

Author(s):

Alessia Santoro ◽

Carlo Tomino ◽

Giulia Prinzi ◽

Vittorio Cardaci ◽

Massimo Fini ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease ◽

Microbial Communities ◽

Pulmonary Disease ◽

Bacterial Infections ◽

Microbial Pathogens ◽

Resistant Bacteria ◽

Chronic Obstructive ◽

Detection Rates ◽

Obstructive Pulmonary Disease ◽

Lung Microbiome

The “microbiome” is the operative term to refer to a collection of all taxa constituting microbial communities, such as bacteria, archaea, fungi and protists (originally microbiota). The microbiome consists of the indigenous microbial communities and of the host environment that they inhabit. Actually, it has been shown that there is a close relationship between the microbiome and human health and disease condition. Although, initially, the lung was considered sterile, actually, the existence of a healthy lung microbiome is usually accepted. Lung microbiome changes are reported in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and in its exacerbation. Viral and bacterial infections of the respiratory system are a major cause of COPD exacerbations (AECOPD) leading to increased local and systemic inflammation. Detection rates of virus in AECOPD are variable between 25-62% according to the detection method. The study of human airway and lung disease virome is quite recent and still very limited. The purpose of this review is to summarize recent findings on the lung microbiome composition with a special emphasis on virome in COPD and in AECOPD. Some drugs of natural origins active against resistant bacteria and virus are described.

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