Lessons from a respiratory illness outbreak in an aged-care facility

John Turahui; Cate Wallace; Paul Corben; Robin Osborne

doi:10.1071/NB07083

RESEARCH ARTICLE

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Lessons from a respiratory illness outbreak in an aged-care facility

John Turahui ^A , Cate Wallace ^B , Paul Corben ^A ^C and Robin Osborne ^A

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

^A Public Health Unit, North Coast Area Health Service

^B NSW Public Health Officer Training Program, NSW Department of Health

^C Corresponding author. Email: paul.corben@ncahs.health.nsw.gov.au

NSW Public Health Bulletin 19(10) 153-156 https://doi.org/10.1071/NB07083
Published: 21 November 2008

Abstract

This report outlines practical lessons learnt from an influenza-like outbreak in an aged-care facility in NSW, which affected 26 residents, resulted in 14 hospital admissions and was associated with six deaths. No common causative agent was identified. Key recommendations include: encouraging aged-care facilities to establish mechanisms that improve the early identification of outbreaks and timely implementation of outbreak control strategies; identifying strategies to inform general practitioners of outbreaks if they have patients residing in aged-care facilities; and improving the vaccination coverage of the aged-care workforce.

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