PAEDS (Paediatric Active Enhanced Disease Surveillance)

Background

The PAEDS network (Paediatric Active Enhanced Disease Surveillance network) is a hospital-based active surveillance system employing prospective case ascertainment for selected serious childhood conditions, particularly vaccine-preventable diseases and potential adverse events following immunisation (AEFI). PAEDS is funded by the Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care, with some grant funding for specific conditions.

Purpose

PAEDS data is used to better understand the conditions, inform policy and practice under the National Immunisation Program (NIP), and enable rapid public health responses for certain conditions of public health importance. PAEDS enhances data available from other Australian surveillance systems by providing prospective, detailed clinical and laboratory information on children with selected conditions.

The current conditions under surveillance by the PAEDS network are:

• acute flaccid paralysis (condition causing paralysis and loss of tone in one or more limbs, which can be caused by the polio virus)
• intussusception (rare type of bowel obstruction seen in infants)
• varicella (chickenpox) and herpes zoster (shingles) requiring hospitalisation
• pertussis (whooping cough)
• acute childhood encephalitis (inflammation and/or infection of the brain)
• influenza
• invasive meningococcal disease (severe bacterial sepsis and/or meningitis)
• invasive group A streptococcus (severe bacterial infection)
• Kawasaki disease (rare disease in which blood vessels throughout the body become inflamed)
• Gram-negative bloodstream infections (serious bacterial infections in the bloodstream)
• COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2)
• PIMS-TS (Paediatric Inflammatory Multisystem Syndrome temporally associated with SARS-CoV-2)
• RSV (respiratory syncytial virus)
• social research (on attitudes towards and access to influenza vaccination in Australia).

Access

PAEDS consists of a network of clinicians and public health researchers in 8 tertiary paediatric hospitals across Australia. 

• The Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne, Vic
• Monash Children’s Hospital, Clayton, Vic
• The Children’s Hospital at Westmead, Sydney, NSW
• The Sydney Children’s Hospital, Randwick, NSW
• Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Adelaide, SA
• Perth Children’s Hospital, Perth, WA
• Queensland Children’s Hospital, Brisbane, Qld
• The Royal Darwin Hospital, Darwin, NT.

For more information about the PAEDS group in Melbourne, please contact the study team via:
The Royal Children’s Hospital

• (03) 9345 5066
• [email protected]

Monash Children’s Hospital

• (03) 8572 3581

Investigators:

• Prof Nigel Crawford [email protected]
• Prof Jim Buttery [email protected]

Resources

• PAEDS network
• Latest PAEDS data on influenza
• Latest PAEDS data on COVID-19
• Latest PAEDS data on PIMS-TS
• Latests PAEDS data on RSV