The Paediatric Active Enhanced Disease Surveillance (PAEDS) 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 data is used to better understand these conditions, inform policy and practice under the National Immunisation Program, 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.

PAEDS consists of a network of clinicians and public health researchers in 7 tertiary paediatric hospitals across Australia.

  • The Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne, Victoria
  • Monash Children’s Hospital, Clayton, Victoria
  • The Children’s Hospital at Westmead, Sydney, New South Wales
  • Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Adelaide, South Australia
  • Perth Children’s Hospital, Perth, Western Australia
  • Queensland Children’s Hospital, Brisbane, Queensland
  • The Royal Darwin Hospital, Darwin, Northern Territory

The PAEDS group is jointly funded by the Commonwealth and State Departments of Health, with some grant funding for specific conditions.

The current conditions under surveillance by the PAEDS network are:

  • Acute Flaccid Paralysis (A condition causing paralysis and loss of tone in one or more limbs, which can be caused by the polio virus)
  • Intussusception (A rare type of bowel obstruction seen in infants)
  • Varicella (chicken pox) and herpes zoster (shingles) requiring hospitalisation
  • Pertussis (Whooping cough)
  • Acute Childhood Encephalitis (Inflammation and/or infection of the brain)
  • Influenza (Seasonal flu)
  • Invasive Meningococcal Disease (Severe bacterial sepsis and/or meningitis)
  • Invasive Group A Streptococcus (A 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)

Contact Information

For more information about the PAEDS group in Melbourne, please contact the study team on:

The Royal Children’s Hospital

(03) 9345 5066 [email protected]

Monash Children’s Hospital

(03) 8572 3581

Investigators

A/Professor Nigel Crawford [email protected]

A/Professor Jim Buttery [email protected]

PAEDS Network Website

www.paeds.edu.au

Author: Alissa McMinn (Research Manager, SAEFVIC, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute)

Reviewed by: Alissa McMinn (Research Manager, SAEFVIC, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute)

Date: October 2020

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