Editor's column

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

This week we are saying goodbye to one of the long-standing members of our editorial team, Dr Graeme Oliver, who is leaving the Department. Graeme has done a great deal of behind the scenes work in reviewing the surveillance data and has been a regular contributor to the surveillance section of CDI and to the annual surveillance reports. We will miss him and wish him well for the future. Dr Eddie O'Brien, who is already a regular contributor to CDI on vaccine preventable diseases, will be broadening his role in the editorial team following Graeme's departure.

In this issue, the article by Torvaldsen and Watson (page 149) reviews data on the provision of rabies prophylaxis in Western Australia between July 1991 and December 1997. It serves as a reminder to readers of the need to provide advice on appropriate prevention measures to travellers to rabies endemic countries and to those who are at risk of exposure to Australian bat lyssavirus (ABL). A useful summary of the current recommendations for pre- and post-exposure management of rabies and ABL is provided (page 153).

CDI tries to provide timely reports on outbreaks of interest to readers, especially where there has been media attention to the outbreak. In this issue we provide information on the recent outbreak of Legionnaires' disease in Victoria and an earlier outbreak of Salmonella Oranienburg infection in South Australia (page 155). We have also included a case report of a traveller who returned from Bali with cholera earlier this year, as a reminder to travellers to developing countries of the need to observe standard food and waterborne disease precautions even when staying in well known resorts (page 154).

The National Health and Medical Research Council has recently recommended that the second dose of measles-mumps-rubella vaccine (MMR2), previously given between 10-16 years of age, be brought forward to school entry (page 156). The Measles Control Campaign, which has commenced this week, will ensure that no child will miss out on their MMR2 following the implementation of the new schedule. While enhanced measles control is the primary aim of the Campaign and the new schedule, what will be the effect of the change on rubella control? The article by Heath et al (page 157) provides reassurance that rubella control will also be improved but stresses the continuing need to screen all pregnant women for rubella immunity status. A second article by Heath et al (page 159) provides confirmation that it is safe and efficacious to administer MMR at any time in relation to other childhood vaccine.

Alert readers will have noted a recent reduction in the cumulative number of HIV diagnoses. This has resulted from a review of the HIV database by the National Centre for HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research which is explained on page 161.

This article was published in Communicable Diseases Intelligence Vol 22 No 8, 6 August 1998.