摘要：As winter and the influenza season approaches,the article by Watts and Kelly1is timely inhighlighting significant deficiencies in thesurveillance of influenza in Australia. Watts andKelly conducted a telephone survey of sentinelpractice schemes in August 2001 and found thatsentinel influenza surveillance schemes vary intheir definition of influenza-like illness (ILI) and intheir access to laboratory support. The impact ofthis is illustrated in a comparison between datafrom New South Wales and Victorian sentinelpractice schemes for 2000 (Figure). In Victoria therates per 1,000 consultations were almost anorder of magnitude lower than in New South Wales,although the number of laboratory reports ofinfluenza in the two States during the same periodwere very similar
