The Local Government Area Summary report allows you to download the latest cases of mosquito-borne diseases notified to the Department of Health.  This reporting system allows you to produce tables and graphs of human cases for each of the four transmissible mosquito-borne diseases that currently occur in Western Australia.

These reports are available by selecting the Report menu and clicking on LGA Summary.

Selecting the LGA Summary report

The LGA Summary report has three main components:

• The Filter component to enable you to specify how to filter the records;
• The results for the financial year (mosquito season) chosen; and
• The comparison across multiple years.

An example of the LGA Summary report

To get started, you need to make some selections in four filters including:

• CLAG – Contiguous Local Authority Group;
• LGA – Local Government Authorities;
• Financial Year – select one financial year at a time; and
• Organism – the disease you wish to analyse.

The first filter is the CLAG filter and allows you to select a Contiguous Local Authorities Group if you are a member of one.  This feature is only available to Local Governments that have formed a CLAG with the Department of Health.  By choosing a CLAG, it will provide the data across all Local Governments that make up that specific CLAG.  For example, the Geographe CLAG will allow trends to be examined across the City of Busselton and the Shire of Capel as they have an agreement to share data.

The CLAG filter with drop down CLAGs displayed

The Local Government Authority (LGA) filter allows you to choose the Local Government to display the human cases notified from that LGA.  In most instances, only one LGA will be listed, which should be the LGA you work within.  However, if you are part of a CLAG, you will also be able to select LGA’s that have agreed to work together to fight mosquitoes and their diseases. In this instance, you can select one or more LG’s.

The LGA filter with a range of Local Governments displayed

The third filter is the financial year.  We use financial years as these most accurately describe the mosquito season, with population booms over the summer months associated with increases in human disease notifications.  Hence data collected over the summer are recorded in a single financial year more accurately depicting trends in disease notifications and mosquito populations.

The Financial Year filter

The last filter is the Organism filter and allows users the ability to choose which disease they would like to compile reports for.  There are four mosquito-borne diseases that can be selected in this filter including:

• Ross River Virus;
• Barmah Forest Virus;
• Murray Valley encephalitis Virus; and
• Kunjin Virus.

The Organism filter

Once you have chosen one or more filters, click on the Filter button.  This will then collect the data you have requested and present it in a series of graphs and summary tables. The first graph shows the number of human disease cases against the selected organism for the selected financial year.  The blue bars indicate the number of Human cases, while the red line shows the long-term monthly average.  We have also provided 95% Confidence Intervals to the data that allows you to determine significant trends above or below the long-term average.

Graph displayed after selecting filters in the LGA Summary report

Please note: You can use your mouse to move around in the interactive charts that are provided on this report.  You can click and drag the chart to scroll around, and use your mouse’s scroll wheel to zoom in and out, once your mouse pointer is over the charts themselves.

  

The graphs are interactive, so you can zoom in and out to look at detail within the figures

At the top right of the graph is a blue Save as Image button.  When you click on this link, the graph will open in your default image program.  These programs usually have a number of options available in them which include printing, saving and modifying images.

The Save as Image button

Below the Financial Year graph is a second graph depicting long-term trends in disease cases for the same locality and disease selected in the filters.  This shows the last ten years and allows users to examine trends over many years.  Once again, the blue bars represent the number of human cases, while the red line represents the long-term average.

The long term trend in disease cases for the location and disease selected

Further, at the top left of the annual disease graph, you will notice two tabs (Summary and Chart). The chart tab displays the graphs discussed above.  If you click on the Summary tab, you will be presented with tables of data that represent the same information as on the graphs.

The Summary/Chart tabs to toggle between graphs and tables of the same data

Table of results presented when the Summary tab is clicked

The tables are also interactive.  By clicking on a Region, you can then see data for each Local Government within that Region.

Expanding the data set by clicking on the Perth Metro Row of data to expose the Local Governments within this region

Furthermore, if you click on any of the Local Governments within the table, the information at Suburb level is provided for the selected Local Government.  Multiple Local Governments can be expanded or shrunk within the table by clicking on the Local Government labels.

By Clicking on Kalamunda, the suburbs within that LGA are exposed in the table

Note: Please also note that this report contains disclaimers that should be captured along with any copies of the charts, which are reproduced below.

1. Data current as at <insert date here> – table may vary from previous or future versions due to inclusion of additional enhanced surveillance data;
2. Source of data: Western Australian Notifiable Infectious Diseases Database (comprising Doctor’s notifications to Public Health Units & Communicable Disease Control Directorate; Laboratory reports to Communicable Disease Control Directorate from participating pathology laboratories); Enhanced Surveillance Data (comprising case follow-ups from Environmental Health Officers; patient interviews; Doctor’s comments on notification forms);
3. Month of onset and suburb/town of exposure determined from Enhanced Surveillance Data where available, and from Doctor’s notifications or laboratory reports where not available;
4. Data varies from official Western Australian Notifiable Infectious Diseases Database records due to inclusion of Enhanced Surveillance Data;
5. Where it is not clearly defined if a case occurred in a particular suburb or a local Government (e.g. Mandurah suburb or the City of Mandurah the case has been entered as a “local government case – unknown suburb” – (e.g. City of Mandurah unknown);
6. Where a place of exposure occurs in a suburb that carries over 2 Local Governments and it is not clearly defined which local government it occurred in, the case has been entered in the Local Government where the largest portion of the suburb occurs; and
7. This information is the intellectual property of the Medical Entomology Branch of the WA Department of Health and may not be used for any purpose without prior permission of human cases.