SPN(WA) is an exciting new collaboration which provides important surveillance information for the vaccine preventable viruses: Varicella, Influenza and Rotavirus. PathWest (QEII) and the Communicable Disease Control Directorate (CDCD) in collaboration with ASPREN have recruited 34 GPs (30 general practices in total) to participate in this system. The SPN(WA) GPs represent remote, rural and urban Western Australia. Participating GPs submit data each week, either via the new Canning 'Flu' Tool (automatically extracts the de-identified data from practice software) or GPs can complete a data collection sheet each week either electronically or via a faxed paper form to the Australian Sentinel Practice Research Network (ASPREN), recording numbers of patients seen with and tested for influenza-like illness (ILI), gastroenteritis (presumed infectious), chickenpox and shingles.

CDCD would like to acknowledge the members of SPN(WA) (in alphabetical order):

· Dr Helen Anstey

· Dr Toby Bell

· Dr Stuart Breden

· Dr Catherine Brooker

· Dr Greg Caddy

· Dr T. M. Chin

· Dr R.L. Cockerill

· Dr Tonya Constantine

· Dr Gerard D-Cruz

· Dr Nigel Dormer

· Dr Jack Faigenbaum

· Dr Stephen Gust

· Dr Stephan Hellmuth

· Dr Glynn Hughes

· Dr Alan Leeb

· Dr Yehuda Levy

· Dr James Lie

· Dr Gareth Mann

· Dr Gavin Marsh

· Dr Nicholas McLernon

· Dr John Miller

· Dr Chris Newall

· Dr Phil Noble

· Dr Edmund Olszewski

· Dr S. G. Ong

· Dr John O'Sullivan

· Dr Kim Pedlow

· Dr Michelle Rooke

· Dr Harpreet Singh

· Dr Jane Talbot

· Dr Nick Toufexis

· Dr Allan Walley

· Dr Keren Witcombe

· Dr Kim Yeoh