SPRINT-SARI (Australia)

Short period incidence study of severe acute respiratory infection

Severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) continues to be of major relevance to public health worldwide. In the last 10 years there have been multiple SARI outbreaks around the world. The 2009 H1N1 pandemic was estimated to result in more than 200,000 respiratory deaths globally. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines SARI as an acute respiratory infection of recent onset (within 10 days) requiring hospitalisation, manifested by fever (≥38oC) or a history of fever and cough. There is international consensus that it is important to undertake observational studies of patients with SARI as an essential component of pandemic and epidemic research preparedness.

SPRINT-SARI (Aust) is a hospital-based surveillance database that will enable the real time tracking and reporting of the sickest patients with COVID-19 in Australian hospitals and Intensive Care Units. SPRINT-SARI is a major international collaboration, and is endorsed by the WHO and the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society Clinical Trials Group.

SPRINT-SARI (Aust) is an observational study in Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) more specifically COVID 19. SPRINT-SARI (Aust) collects COVID-19 data from the majority of Adult and paediatric Australian ICUs. SPRINT-SARI (Aust) collects data on patients of all ages and is collected, from 63 Intensive Care Units across 6 states and 2 territories. SPRINT-SARI (Aust) supplies aggregated data to a number of Federal and state authorities to assist with modelling. SPRINT-SARI (Aust) also adds to the global information on COVID-19 through its links to The International Severe Acute Respiratory and emerging Infection Consortium (ISARIC, Oxford University)

Research coordinators at each intensive care site are a critically important part of this data collection and ensures that only high-quality data is entered into the SPRINT-SARI (Aust) database. SPRINT-SARI (Aust) not only provides monthly reports to the Federal Department of Health, SPRINT-SARI (Aust) also makes these aggregated reports available to all Intensive Care clinicians to aid in COVID management and planning. Aggregated SPRINT-SARI (Aust) data is used by the Australian Health Protection Committee (AHPC) and the Australian National Disease Surveillance Plan for COVID-19.

The SPRINT-SARI (Aust) REDCap database has been designed to:

  • Minimise the data burden on sites
  • Internationally align, and
  • Be nimble to allow for subtle changes in disease patterns.

SPRINT-SARI (Aust) data entry and data management is coordinated and managed by the Australia and New Zealand Intensive Care Research Centre (ANZIC-RC), part of the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, using a secure database held at Monash University, Victoria.

Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov ID NCT02498587

Endorsement:  Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society Clinical Trials Group: ANZICS CTG1516-01

Ethics: Alfred Health HREC/16/Alfred/59 (Local Reference: Project 202/16); Monash CF16/2333-2016001171

Key Contacts:

SPRINT-SARI (Aust) Reports:

Data in these reports should not be reproduced without permission.

The utmost effort has been made to ensure the highest quality data are being reported. However, please note the following caveats:

  • The population in this report reflect the sickest patients with COVID-19 infection being managed in the ICU, and do not reflect the overall population of COVID-19 positive patients.
  • Information is not complete for all patients.
  • Whenever possible, transfers were aggregated into one record.
  • As the pandemic is ongoing and site contributions evolve, it is possible for trends and distributions to change as more data is collected with greater precision. This report is also descriptive and we urge caution in any inference particularly around causation.
  • Due to an extreme workload, site staff are not always available to enter data. Site staff make best efforts to collect all data, but each report will have an indication of missing patients for that period.
  • Not all sites have governance approval to enter data. An estimate of missed patients is included in each report.
  • We stopped collecting data on certain points since September 2021.

SPRINT-SARI 2022 Annual Report

SPRINT-SARI 2023 Annual Report

SPRINT-SARI 2024 Annual Report

SPRINT-SARI also contributes data on a monthly basis to the Australian Respiratory Surveillance Report (ARSR). You can find the 2024 reports here and the 2025 reports here.