Editor's column

A print friendly PDF version is available from this Communicable Diseases Intelligence issue's table of contents.

With this issue, we commence a regular column from the Editor to introduce the journal contents and to provide commentary on current communicable diseases topics.

CDI is the journal of the Communicable Diseases Network Australia New Zealand. It aims to provide up to date information on the public health aspects of communicable diseases in Australia, through a combination of peer-reviewed articles, short outbreak reports, commentaries, and surveillance data and reports. Peer review was introduced at the beginning of 1996 and, since early 1997, the journal has been listed in Index Medicus and MEDLINE. CDI has a circulation of approximately 3,500 from both within Australia and overseas. Our readers include medical practitioners, microbiologists, nurses and environmental health officers.

Since October 1997 the journal has been published monthly in hard copy. It is also available on our website, the address for which is published on the back cover of CDI. Tabulated national notifiable diseases surveillance data are also published fortnightly on the website.

Contributions of articles, outbreak reports, commentaries, and letters are welcome and should be sent to the Editor at the address detailed on the back cover of CDI.

This issue of CDI focuses on arboviral infections in Australia. Arbovirus diseases are emerging in both Australia and the neighbouring region, with spread of these infections to areas in which they have been formerly rare or unknown. Examples are the recent occurrence of the first case of Japanese encephalitis acquired on the Australian mainland, the continuing outbreak of dengue type 3 in Cairns, and the acquisition of Ross River virus infection in western Sydney in 1997. The article by Mackenzie et al provides a useful and timely review of arboviral infections in Australia, and the neighbouring region, in recent years. Amin et al discuss the investigation of cases of RR virus infection in western Sydney in 1997. Merritt et al report on the first case of MVE acquired in Alice Springs in over 20 years. Three cases of dengue imported from Thailand are reported by Playford et al, reminding us of the need to provide good travel health advice to Australian's travelling in dengue endemic countries and of the importance of prompt notification of cases which occur in the dengue receptive area of Australia. Mein's article illustrates the complexity of diagnosis of flavivirus infection and the importance of considering the clinical, epidemiological and laboratory information for each patient before reaching a final diagnosis. For your interest, we have also reproduced an article about the recent dengue 3 outbreak in Cairns, previously published in the Tropical Public Health Unit Newsletter. Also in this issue, Holland describes the first case of infantile botulism reported in Australia since the establishment of the current NNDSS in 1992, and Ferson's letter reminds us of the need to consider hepatitis A when discussing sexually transmissible diseases.

This article was published in Communicable Diseases Intelligence Vol 22 No 6, 11 June 1998.