The Gold Coast Public Health Unit has issued an alert for general practitioners.
Infectious Gastroenteritis
The Gold Coast Public Health Unit has now had more than 30 outbreaks of infectious gastroenteritis reported in the last two weeks, including from childcare centres, schools and residential aged care facilities.
The epidemiology of the outbreaks suggests a likely viral cause, as very few specimens have been collected.
Anyone who presents to a medical practitioner with symptoms that could be attributed to infectious gastroenteritis, and is associated with any facility as outlined above, should be provided with a stool sample pot and request form to collect a faeces sample for culture and viral testing for noro-, adeno- and rotavirus.
To ensure that more serious infections (such as Salmonella or Campylobacter) are not missed, it is important the patient is encouraged to provide a sample for testing.
Most notifiable gastrointestinal diseases will be notified by the pathology provider when they are identified. Any food or water-borne illness in a food handler or in two or more related cases (eg. childcare, school or residential care) requires a telephone notification to the Lismore Public Health Unit on (02) 6620 7585.