Emergency medical teams in WHO's Western Pacific Region.

This regional analysis aims to provide a comprehensive review of emergency medical team development and action in health emergency response in the Western Pacific Region from 2010 to 2024. It details national, subregional and regional efforts to strengthen health emergency preparedness, response and resilience; it notes challenges faced by the teams in these efforts; and it provides examples that could be adopted or adapted to strengthen their development and action around the world. Emergency medical teams are critical components of national, regional and global health emergency workforces, enabling rapid, high-quality and self-sufficient responses to health emergencies domestically or internationally.

Characteristics and predictors of severe outcomes of COVID-19 cases presenting to the emergency department of a major Australian referral hospital: A record linkage study.

Objective: To describe the characteristics, outcomes and predictors of a severe outcome of patients presenting with a SARS-CoV-2 infection to the ED of a major urban referral hospital in New South Wales, Australia, from January 2020 through February 2022.

Methods: Linked healthcare and death registration records were used and included any person assigned a diagnosis potentially related to an acute respiratory infection in the ED and that had a linked positive COVID-19 detection. Logistic regression was used to determine predictors of a severe outcome (ICU admission or death) within 28 days.

COVID-19 symptomatic community illness, hospitalization, and death burden across all ages - New South Wales, Australia, May 2021-July 2022.

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) burden is difficult to quantify with cases missed by surveillance systems. During COVID-19 Delta and Omicron BA.1-5 periods, we assessed the COVID-19 burden in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, from May 2021-July 2022 using a participatory surveillance system of self-reported respiratory disease and a database of people seeking healthcare.

Monitoring mortality in the setting of COVID-19 pandemic control in Victoria, Australia: a time series analysis of population data.

Objective: Mortality surveillance was established in the state of Victoria just before the COVID-19 pandemic. Here, we describe the establishment of this surveillance system, justify the modelling approach selected, and provide examples of how the interpretation of changes in mortality rates during the pandemic was influenced by the model chosen.

Methods: Registered deaths occurring in Victoria from 1 January 2015 to 31 December 2020 were sourced from the Victoria Death Index.

Respiratory virus detections in children presenting to an Australian paediatric referral hospital pre-COVID-19 pandemic, January 2014 to December 2019.

Acute respiratory infections cause significant paediatric morbidity, but for pathogens other than influenza, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and SARS-CoV-2, systematic monitoring is not commonly performed. This retrospective analysis of six years of routinely collected respiratory pathogen multiplex PCR testing at a major paediatric hospital in New South Wales Australia, describes the epidemiology, year-round seasonality, and co-detection patterns of 15 viral respiratory pathogens. 32,599 respiratory samples from children aged under 16 years were analysed.