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There were 7,238 notifications to the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS) in the four week period, 3 to 30 March 1999 (Tables 1 and 2). The numbers of reports for selected diseases have been compared with historical data for corresponding periods in the previous three years (Figure 1).

There were 1,542 reports received by the Virology and Serology Laboratory Reporting Scheme (LabVISE) in the four week period, 25 February to 24 March 1999 (Tables 3 and 4).

The Australian Sentinel Practice Research Network (ASPREN) data for weeks 9 to 12, ending 28 March 1999, are included in this issue of CDI (Table 5).

Table 1. Notifications of diseases preventable by vaccines recommended by the NHMRC for routine childhood immunisation, received by State and Territory health authorities in the period 3 to 30 March 1999

Disease1,2	ACT	NSW	NT	Qld	SA	Tas	Vic	WA	This period 1999	This period 1998	Year to date 1999	Year to date 1998
Diphtheria	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
H. influenzae type b infection	0	1	1	1	0	0	1	0	4	3	13	6
Measles	2	4	0	2	0	1	48	2	59	29	98	100
Mumps	1	2	0	1	0	0	4	3	11	18	28	48
Pertussis	5	70	1	58	7	6	103	4	254	503	961	2,664
Rubella3	3	2	1	8	1	0	8	2	25	53	85	179
Tetanus	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2

NN. Not Notifiable
1. No notification of poliomyelitis has been received since 1978.
2. Totals comprise data from all States and Territories. Cumulative figures are subject to retrospective revision, so there may be discrepancies between the number of new notifications and the increment in the cumulative figure from the previous period.
3. Includes congenital rubella.

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Table 2. Notifications of diseases received by State and Territory health authorities in the period 3 to 30 March 1999

Disease1,2,3,4	ACT	NSW	NT	Qld	SA	Tas	Vic	WA	This period 1999	This period 1998	Year to date 1999	Year to date 19985
Arbovirus infection (NEC)	0	0	0	3	0	1	8	0	12	5	28	17
Barmah Forest virus infection	0	24	0	24	0	0	1	1	50	63	160	180
Brucellosis	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	2	5	14
Campylobacteriosis6	44	-	27	280	338	32	306	80	1,107	867	3,439	3,049
Chancroid	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Chlamydial infection (NEC)7	20	NN	53	392	74	20	208	143	910	826	2,753	2,430
Cholera	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	2
Dengue	0	1	0	12	0	0	0	2	15	106	124	185
Donovanosis	0	NN	0	0	NN	0	0	0	0	3	5	17
Gonococcal infection8	4	74	88	118	22	2	0	73	381	391	1,213	1,194
Haemolytic uraemic syndrome9	NN	1	NN	1	0	0	NN	0	2	1	7	2
Hepatitis A	3	49	6	42	9	1	18	21	149	266	487	842
Hepatitis B incident	3	3	4	2	3	1	0	2	18	19	77	68
Hepatitis B unspecified10	3	136	0	65	0	2	157	11	374	614	1,489	1,797
Hepatitis C incident	12	0	0	-	3	0	0	8	23	33	81	64
Hepatitis C unspecified5,10	23	505	39	254	77	35	362	69	1,364	1,965	4,875	5,576
Hepatitis (NEC)11	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	NN	0	2	1	6
Hydatid infection	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	2	1	7	9
Legionellosis	0	2	0	3	4	1	20	4	34	19	93	55
Leprosy	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
Leptospirosis	0	1	1	24	0	0	4	0	30	12	97	38
Listeriosis	0	2	0	0	0	0	2	0	4	7	14	20
Malaria	3	12	2	31	2	0	3	0	53	40	221	162
Meningococcal infection	0	17	0	6	0	0	5	6	34	11	96	47
Ornithosis	0	NN	0	0	0	0	2	0	2	1	16	6
Q fever	0	11	0	33	0	0	1	1	46	37	127	125
Ross River virus infection	1	161	8	479	4	11	24	23	711	580	1,870	1,104
Salmonellosis (NEC)	6	127	46	296	482	32	177	58	1,224	800	3,019	2,591
Shigellosis6	1	-	15	18	12	0	17	10	73	61	178	180
SLTEC, VTEC12	NN	0	NN	NN	3	0	NN	NN	3	1	10	4
Syphilis13	1	27	41	72	1	1	0	0	143	116	454	321
TTP14	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Tuberculosis	1	50	1	8	0	2	31	1	94	94	337	320
Typhoid15	0	3	0	0	2	0	2	1	8	9	21	35
Yersiniosis (NEC)6	1	-	0	13	4	0	0	0	18	12	59	84

1. Diseases preventable by routine childhood immunisation are presented in Table 1.
2. For HIV and AIDS, see Tables 6 and 7.
3. Totals comprise data from all States and Territories. Cumulative figures are subject to retrospective revision so there may be discrepancies between the number of new notifications and the increment in the cumulative figure from the previous period.
4. No notifications have been received during 1999 for the following rare diseases: lymphogranuloma venereum, botulism, plague, rabies, yellow fever, or other viral haemorrhagic fevers.
5. Data from Victoria for 1998 are incomplete.
6. Not reported for NSW because it is only notifiable as 'foodborne disease' or 'gastroenteritis in an institution'.
7. WA: genital only.
8. NT, Qld, SA and Vic: includes gonococcal neonatal ophthalmia.
9. Nationally reportable from August 1998.
10. Unspecified numbers should be interpreted with some caution as the magnitude may be a reflection of the numbers of testings being carried out.
11. Includes hepatitis D and E.
12. Infections with Shiga-like toxin (verotoxin) producing E. Coli (SLTEC/VTEC) became nationally reportable in August 1998.
13. Includes congenital syphilis.
14. thrombotic thrombocytopaenic purpura became nationally reportable in August 1998.
15. NSW, Qld: includes paratyphoid.
NN   Not Notifiable.
NEC   Not Elsewhere Classified.
-   Elsewhere Classified.

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Figure 1. Selected National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System reports, and historical data¹

1. The historical data are the averages of the number of notifications in the corresponding 4 week periods of the last 3 years and the 2 week periods immediately preceding and following those.

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Table 4. Virology and serology laboratory reports by State or Territory¹ for the reporting period 25 February to 24 March 1999, and total reports for the year

	State or Territory1								Total this period	Total reported in CDI in 1999
	ACT	NSW	NT	Qld	SA	Tas	Vic	WA
Measles, mumps, rubella
Measles virus		1					35	2	38	48
Mumps virus								7	7	16
Rubella virus			1	1		1	1	1	5	21
Hepatitis viruses
Hepatitis A virus			1	4		2		16	23	111
Arboviruses
Ross River virus		7	5	196			5	42	255	569
Barmah Forest virus		1	1	6				4	12	34
Dengue type 3				1					1	23
Dengue not typed						1		5	6	17
Kunjin virus								1	1	1
Flavivirus (unspecified)				3					3	11
Adenoviruses
Adenovirus type 2							1		1	6
Adenovirus type 3							4		4	13
Adenovirus type 4							2		2	3
Adenovirus type 5							1		1	1
Adenovirus type 7							1		1	1
Adenovirus type 10							1		1	1
Adenovirus type 19	1								1	1
Adenovirus type 37							2		2	4
Adenovirus type 40								5	5	18
Adenovirus not typed/pending		38		1	1	1	8	17	66	361
Herpes viruses
Herpes virus type 6								2	2	2
Cytomegalovirus		7		19			25	11	62	311
Varicella-zoster virus		14		25			8	48	95	520
Epstein-Barr virus		5	2	51		1	13	36	108	729
Other DNA viruses
Molluscum contagiosum								1	1	3
Parvovirus				3		1	14	15	33	114
Picornavirus family
Coxsackievirus B5							1		1	2
Echovirus type 2							1		1	1
Echovirus type 5		1							1	2
Echovirus type 6		6							6	9
Echovirus type 9		1							1	17
Echovirus type 11	1	5							6	25
Echovirus type 22		5							5	11
Echovirus type 30		4							4	18
Poliovirus type 1 (uncharacterised)							2		2	6
Poliovirus type 1 (vaccine strain)						1			1	1
Rhinovirus (all types)		16						15	31	113
Enterovirus not typed/pending		1	3				6	69	79	227
Ortho/paramyxoviruses
Influenza A virus		8		1			5	11	25	194
Influenza B virus								8	8	28
Parainfluenza virus type 2								1	1	8
Parainfluenza virus type 3		32		1	1		1	15	50	248
Respiratory syncytial virus	1	38	1	24		2	4	40	110	273
Other RNA viruses
HTLV-1				1					1	4
Rotavirus		10					4	49	63	286
Norwalk agent							9		9	29
Other
Chlamydia trachomatis - A-K							1		1	1
Chlamydia trachomatis not typed		31	18	75		7	2	109	242	798
Chlamydia psittaci							2	1	3	20
Chlamydia spp typing pending								1	1	1
Chlamydia species				1					1	3
Mycoplasma pneumoniae		12	1	15			35	7	70	382
Coxiella burnetii (Q fever)		1		12			2	2	17	48
Rickettsia spp - other								1	1	3
Bordetella pertussis		4		13			35	4	56	171
Legionella pneumophila								1	1	5
Legionella longbeachae								3	3	20
Cryptococcus species		1							1	1
Leptospira hardjo								1	1	2
Total	3	250	33	453	2	17	233	551	1,542	5,899

1. State or Territory of postcode, if reported, otherwise State or Territory of reporting laboratory.

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Table 4. Virology and serology laboratory reports by contributing laboratories for the reporting period 25 February to 24 March 1999

State or Territory	Laboratory	Reports
New South Wales	Institute of Clinical Pathology and Medical Research, Westmead New Children's Hospital, Westmead Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Camperdown South West Area Pathology Service, Liverpool	22 114 41 57
Queensland	Queensland Medical Laboratory, West End Townsville General Hospital	473 20
Tasmania	Northern Tasmanian Pathology Service, Launceston Royal Hobart Hospital, Hobart	6 10
Victoria	Monash Medical Centre, Melbourne Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory, Fairfield	29 76 131
Western Australia	PathCentre Virology, Perth Princess Margaret Hospital, Perth	525 38
Total		1,542

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Table 5. Australian Sentinel Practice Research Network reports, weeks 9 to 12, 1999

Week number	9		10		11		12
Week ending on	7 March 1999		14 March 1999		21 March 1999		28 March 1999
Doctors reporting	50		47		56		54
Total encounters	6,401		6,574		7,427		7,669
Condition	Reports	Rate per 1,000 encounters	Reports	Rate per 1,000 encounters	Reports	Rate per 1,000 encounters	Reports	Rate per 1,000 encounters
Influenza	18	2.8	27	4.1	10	1.3	24	3.1
Rubella	2	0.3	0	0.0	0	0.0	2	0.3
Measles	0	0.0	0	0.0	0	0.0	2	0.3
Chickenpox	8	1.2	5	0.8	9	1.2	11	1.4
New diagnosis of asthma	5	0.8	11	1.7	10	1.3	5	0.7
Post operative wound sepsis	6	0.9	13	2.0	12	1.6	12	1.6
Gastroenteritis	62	9.7	65	9.9	67	9.0	60	7.8

The NNDSS is conducted under the auspices of the Communicable Diseases Network Australia New Zealand. The system coordinates the national surveillance of more than 40 communicable diseases or disease groups endorsed by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC). Notifications of these diseases are made to State and Territory health authorities under the provisions of their respective public health legislations. De-identified core unit data are supplied fortnightly for collation, analysis and dissemination. For further information, see Commun Dis Intell 1999;23:58.

LabVISE is a sentinel reporting scheme. Twenty-one laboratories contribute data on the laboratory identification of viruses and other organisms. Data are collated and published in Communicable Diseases Intelligence every four weeks. These data should be interpreted with caution as the number and type of reports received is subject to a number of biases. For further information, see Commun Dis Intell 1999;23:58.

ASPREN currently comprises about 100 general practitioners from throughout the country. Up to 9,000 consultations are reported each week, with special attention to 12 conditions chosen for sentinel surveillance in 1999. CDI reports the consultation rates for seven of these. For further information, including case definitions, see Commun Dis Intell 1999;23:55-56.


This article was published in Communicable Diseases Intelligence Volume 23, No 4, 15 April 1999.