Increasing Incidence of Salmonella in Australia, 2000-2013

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 11; no. 10; p. e0163989
• Main Authors: Ford, Laura, Glass, Kathryn, Veitch, Mark, Wardell, Rebecca, Polkinghorne, Ben, Dobbins, Timothy, Lal, Aparna, Kirk, Martyn D
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 12.10.2016; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Age; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Analysis; Australia - epidemiology; Biology and Life Sciences; Child; Child, Preschool; Confidence intervals; Data processing; Disease; Epidemics; Epidemiology; Female; Food contamination & poisoning; Foodborne Diseases - epidemiology; Foodborne Diseases - microbiology; Gastroenteritis; Humans; Incidence; Infant; Infection; Infections; Internet; Laboratories; Male; Medicine and Health Sciences; Middle Aged; People and Places; Population; Public health; Publishing; Regression analysis; Research and Analysis Methods; Salmonella; Salmonella enterica; Salmonella Infections - epidemiology; Salmonella Infections - microbiology; Salmonella typhimurium; Salmonella typhimurium - isolation & purification; Statistical analysis; Studies; Territory; Trends; Young Adult; Zoonoses; Queensland Australia; United States > US; Canberra Australian Capital Territory Australia; Australia; Australian Capital Territory Australia; New South Wales Australia; Tasmania Australia
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0163989

Salmonella is a key cause of foodborne gastroenteritis in Australia and case numbers are increasing. We used negative binomial regression to analyze national surveillance data for 2000-2013, for Salmonella Typhimurium and non-Typhimurium Salmonella serovars. We estimated incidence rate ratios adjusted for sex and age to show trends over time. Almost all states and territories had significantly increasing trends of reported infection for S. Typhimurium, with states and territories reporting annual increases as high as 12% (95% confidence interval 10-14%) for S. Typhimurium in the Australian Capital Territory and 6% (95% CI 5-7%) for non-Typhimurium Salmonella in Victoria. S. Typhimurium notification rates were higher than non-Typhimurium Salmonella rates in most age groups in the south eastern states of Australia, while non-Typhimurium rates were higher in most age groups elsewhere. The S. Typhimurium notification rate peaked at 12-23 months of age and the non-Typhimurium Salmonella notification rate peaked at 0-11 months of age. The age-specific pattern of S. Typhimurium cases suggests a foodborne origin, while the age and geographic pattern for non-Typhimurium may indicate that other transmission routes play a key role for these serovars.