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

Communicable Diseases Surveillance consists of data from various sources. The National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS) is conducted under the auspices of the Communicable Diseases Network Australia New Zealand. The Virology and Serology Laboratory Reporting Scheme (LabVISE) is a sentinel surveillance scheme. The Australian Sentinel Practice Research Network (ASPREN) is a general practitioner-based sentinel surveillance scheme. In this report, data from the NNDSS are referred to as 'notifications' or 'cases', whereas those from ASPREN are referred to as 'consultations' or 'encounters' while data from the LabVISE scheme are referred to as 'laboratory reports'.

Vaccine preventable diseases

With the exception of Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) infection the other vaccine preventable diseases notifications for the year to date, were lower than in 1998. In particular the number of notifications of pertussis and rubella were notably lower.

The number of pertussis notifications was higher for this reporting period (302) than both the previous one (245) and the corresponding reporting period in 1998 (289). However, the number of cases for the year to date was lower in 1999 (2,619) than 1998 (4,894), reflecting an ongoing decrease in the year to date case numbers.

The number of rubella notifications was lower for this reporting period (23) than the previous one (34) and the corresponding reporting period in 1998 (104). Overall, the number of cases for the year to date decreased in 1999 (259) compared with 1998 (578).

The number of Hib infections was higher for this reporting period (3) than the previous one (1) and the corresponding reporting period in 1998 (2). Overall the number of cases for the year to date increased in 1999 (30) compared with 1998 (22). The ratio of males to females was 1:1.5 for this reporting period. The peak number of cases for males (7) and females (6) occurred in the 0-4 year age group with a second peak for females in the 70-74 year age group (4).

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Meningococcal disease

The number of notifications of meningococcal disease (58) did not increase in this reporting period compared with the previous period (64) or the corresponding period in 1998 (62). However, the number of cases for the year to date reported in 1999 (373) was higher than for the same period in 1998 (308).

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Vectorborne

The number of cases of dengue infection was higher for this reporting period (5) than for the previous one (2) but lower than for the corresponding reporting period in 1998 (22). Likewise, the overall number of cases to date for the year has decreased for 1999 (163) compared with 1998 (378).

The number of cases of Ross River virus infection for this reporting period (34) was lower than the previous period (67) and for a similar period in 1998 (81). However, overall the number of cases to date for the year increased for 1999 (3,986) compared with 1998 (2,412).

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Zoonoses

The number of cases of Q fever for this reporting period (14) was similar to the previous period (12) but significantly lower than for a similar period in 1998 (49). Overall the number of cases to date for the year had decreased for 1999 (324) compared with 1998 (386).


This article was published in Communicable Diseases Intelligence Volume 23, No 10, 30 September 1999.