Lessons from a respiratory illness outbreak in an aged-care facility

Abstract

This report outlines practical lessons learnt from an influenza-like outbreak in an aged-care facility in NSW, which affected 26 residents, resulted in 14 hospital admissions and was associated with six deaths. No common causative agent was identified. Key recommendations include: encouraging aged-care facilities to establish mechanisms that improve the early identification of outbreaks and timely implementation of outbreak control strategies; identifying strategies to inform general practitioners of outbreaks if they have patients residing in aged-care facilities; and improving the vaccination coverage of the aged-care workforce.