摘要：Laboratory-supported influenza surveillance is important as part of pandemic preparedness, for identifying andisolating candidate vaccine strains, for supporting trials of anti-influenza drugs and for refining the influenzasurveillance case definition in practice. This study describes the implementation of laboratory-supported influenzasurveillance in Victorian sentinel general practices and provides an estimate of the proportion of patients with aninfluenza-like illness proven to have influenza. During 1998 and 1999, 25 sentinel general practices contributedclinical surveillance data and 16 metropolitan practices participated in laboratory surveillance. Serological,virus-antigen detection, virus culture and multiplex polymerase chain reaction procedures were used to establishthe diagnosis of influenza. Two laboratories at major teaching hospitals in Melbourne provided additional data oninfluenza virus identification. General practice sentinel surveillance and laboratory identification of influenzaprovided similar data on the pattern of influenza in the community between May and September. The clinicalsuspicion of influenza was confirmed in 49 to 54 per cent of cases seen in general practice
