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There were 4,907 notifications to the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS) in the four week period, 23 June to 20 July 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 3).

There were 1,946 reports received by the Virology and Serology Laboratory Reporting Scheme (LabVISE) in the four week period, 17 June to 14 July 1999 (Tables 3 and 4).

The Australian Sentinel Practice Research Network (ASPREN) data for weeks 25 to 28, ending 18 July 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 23 June to 20 July 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	2	1	2	0	0	0	0	5	3	24	18
Measles	1	3	0	11	0	0	4	0	19	28	180	211
Mumps	3	1	0	2	1	1	7	1	16	8	93	88
Pertussis	3	48	0	122	20	27	61	8	289	313	1,876	4,029
Rubella3	3	2	1	15	0	0	6	0	27	55	221	431
Tetanus	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	3

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 23 June to 20 July 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 1998
Arbovirus infection (NEC)	0	0	1	1	0	0	1	0	3	4	89	62
Barmah Forest virus infection	0	11	0	19	0	0	0	1	31	25	444	376
Brucellosis	0	0	0	3	0	0	1	0	4	4	15	24
Campylobacteriosis5	21	-	18	202	142	38	278	101	800	932	6,842	6,256
Chancroid	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
Chlamydial infection (NEC)6	25	NN	62	337	77	28	88	132	749	853	6,316	5,900
Cholera	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	3
Dengue	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	2	55	155	340
Donovanosis	0	NN	1	0	NN	0	0	0	1	3	10	22
Gonococcal infection7	2	52	65	67	12	0	54	71	323	424	3,089	2,914
Haemolytic uraemic syndrome8	NN	0	0	0	0	0	NN	0	0	1	11	7
Hepatitis A	0	18	9	18	7	1	11	19	83	233	914	1,798
Hepatitis B incident	0	1	1	3	2	0	5	1	13	28	165	155
Hepatitis B unspecified9	4	143	0	52	0	5	184	37	425	567	3,745	4,080
Hepatitis C incident	0	0	0	-	5	0	4	2	11	17	166	152
Hepatitis C unspecified9	22	367	19	235	90	21	499	56	1,309	1,770	10,628	11,986
Hepatitis (NEC)10	1	1	0	2	0	0	0	NN	4	0	10	9
Hydatid infection	0	0	0	2	1	0	1	0	4	5	20	20
Legionellosis	0	2	0	2	1	0	2	1	8	29	162	153
Leprosy	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	2
Leptospirosis	0	6	0	11	0	0	0	0	17	13	257	91
Listeriosis	0	1	0	2	0	1	0	1	5	5	27	34
Malaria	1	3	3	26	2	0	2	0	37	99	401	480
Meningococcal infection	2	13	0	12	2	0	9	4	42	50	240	183
Ornithosis	0	NN	0	0	0	0	5	0	5	4	48	22
Q fever	0	7	0	32	2	0	5	0	46	49	283	309
Ross River virus infection	0	25	4	51	0	4	4	18	106	80	3,839	2,295
Salmonellosis (NEC)	6	51	15	98	19	4	48	23	264	647	5,062	5,168
Shigellosis5	0	-	4	8	2	1	5	8	28	31	346	365
SLTEC, VTEC11	NN	0	0	NN	2	0	NN	NN	2	1	15	8
Syphilis12	0	18	11	85	1	1	2	7	125	132	1,060	771
TTP13	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Tuberculosis	1	44	3	5	5	2	23	6	89	114	801	720
Typhoid14	0	2	0	1	0	0	0	1	4	2	43	48
Yersiniosis (NEC)5	0	-	0	7	1	0	1	0	9	8	94	146

1. Diseases preventable by routine childhood immunisation are presented in Table 1.
2. For HIV and AIDS, see Tables 8 and 9.
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, plague, rabies, yellow fever, or other viral haemorrhagic fevers.
5. Not reported for NSW because it is only notifiable as 'foodborne disease' or 'gastroenteritis in an institution'.
6. WA: genital only.
7. NT, Qld, SA and Vic: includes gonococcal neonatal ophthalmia.
8. Nationally reportable from August 1998.
9. Unspecified numbers should be interpreted with some caution as the magnitude may be a reflection of the numbers of testings being carried out.
10. Includes hepatitis D and E.
11. Infections with Shiga-like toxin (verotoxin) producing E. Coli (SLTEC/VTEC) became nationally reportable in August 1998.
12. Includes congenital syphilis.
13. Thrombotic thrombocytopaenic purpura became nationally reportable in August 1998.
14. NSW, Qld: includes paratyphoid.
NN Not Notifiable.
NEC Not Elsewhere Classified.
- Elsewhere Classified.

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Figure 3. 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 3. Virology and serology laboratory reports by State or Territory¹ for the reporting period 17 June to 14 July 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							3		3	146
Mumps virus								2	2	39
Rubella virus	1			10		1	1		13	69
Hepatitis viruses
Hepatitis A virus			4	5	9			6	24	253
Hepatitis D virus					1				1	3
Arboviruses
Ross River virus		2		14	2		3	10	31	1,214
Barmah Forest virus		2		8				2	12	141
Japanese encephalitis virus								1	1	1
Flavivirus (unspecified)							1		1	14
Adenoviruses
Adenovirus type 1							1		1	17
Adenovirus type 2							3		3	11
Adenovirus type 4							1		1	8
Adenovirus type 37							1		1	13
Adenovirus type 40								5	5	43
Adenovirus not typed/pending		8	1	3	29		25	7	73	716
Herpes viruses
Cytomegalovirus		17	1	9	20	1	22	1	71	713
Varicella-zoster virus		6	1	26	29		24	12	98	1,031
Epstein-Barr virus		4	2	54	107	1	18	8	194	1,573
Other DNA viruses
Papovavirus group							1	1	2	12
Molluscum contagiosum								1	1	11
Parvovirus				11	2	3	17	5	38	265
Picornavirus family
Coxsackievirus A9							1		1	4
Coxsackievirus A16							2		2	4
Coxsackievirus B5							1		1	3
Echovirus type 11		14					1		15	58
Poliovirus type 3 (uncharacterised)							1		1	4
Rhinovirus (all types)		9			3		5	13	30	231
Enterovirus not typed/pending			1			1	3	47	52	492
Ortho/paramyxoviruses
Influenza A virus		94		23	74		57	2	250	649
Influenza A virus H3N2							9	1	10	17
Influenza B virus		7		1	5		1	1	15	86
Parainfluenza virus type 1				1	4				5	29
Parainfluenza virus type 2					10		9	2	21	76
Parainfluenza virus type 3		8		4	8		7	4	31	373
Respiratory syncytial virus		198		52	45	4	58	11	368	1,169
Other RNA viruses
HTLV-1			1						1	9
Rotavirus		87			38	9	25	9	168	720
Astrovirus							2		2	4
Norwalk agent							6		6	55
Other
Chlamydia trachomatis not typed		10	15	74	53	1	19	39	211	1,757
Chlamydia psittaci							11	1	12	59
Chlamydia species				1					1	9
Mycoplasma pneumoniae		11		28	5		28	4	76	735
Coxiella burnetii (Q fever)		1		8			5	1	15	106
Bordetella pertussis		1		46			22	4	73	428
Legionella pneumophila								1	1	9
Legionella longbeachae					2				2	27
Total	1	479	26	378	446	21	394	201	1,946	13,406

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 17 June to 14 July 1999

State or Territory	Laboratory	Reports1
New South Wales	Institute of Clinical Pathology and Medical Research, Westmead New Children's Hospital, Westmead South West Area Pathology Service, Liverpool	132 122 202
Queensland	Queensland Medical Laboratory, West End Townsville General Hospital	415 12
South Australia	Institute of Medical and Veterinary Science, Adelaide	445
Tasmania	Northern Tasmanian Pathology Service, Launceston	16
Victoria	Monash Medical Centre, Melbourne Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory, Fairfield	105 152 136
Western Australia	PathCentre Virology, Perth	209
Total		1,946

1. Due to computer processing problems figures from the Institute of Clinical Pathology and Medical Research, Westmead have been under reported since February 1999. Reports of influenza from Westmead have been manually corrected in this report; numbers for other organisms remain under reported. It is anticipated that the reporting system will be corrected for the next issue.

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Table 5. Australian Sentinel Practice Research Network reports, weeks 25 to 28, 1999

Week number	25		26		27		28
Week ending on	27 June 1999		4 July 1999		11 July 1999		18 July 1999
Doctors reporting	49		47		49		48
Total encounters	6,457		6,087		6,496		6,289
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	67	10.4	78	12.8	91	14.0	87	13.8
Rubella	0	0.0	1	0.2	2	0.3	0	0.0
Measles	1	0.2	0	0.0	0	0.0	1	0.2
Chickenpox	10	1.5	4	0.7	7	1.1	13	2.1
New diagnosis of asthma	14	2.2	9	1.5	13	2.0	12	1.9
Post operative wound sepsis	3	0.5	10	1.6	11	1.7	10	1.6
Gastroenteritis	67	10.4	40	6.6	52	8.0	60	9.5

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 legislation. 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. Commun Dis Intell 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 8, 5 August 1999.