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In the last issue an additional set of summary tables presenting data by date of onset for each calendar month was introduced for the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System. In this issue, a further refinement is introduced. From this issue on Table 1 will present 'date of notification' data, which is a composite of three components: (i) the true onset date from a clinician, if available, (ii) the date the laboratory test was ordered, or (iii) the date reported to the public health unit. Data for February 2000, by date of notification, are presented in Table 1 of this issue and are discussed in the highlights section. Table 2 presents data by report date for weeks 5 to 8, ending 27 February 2000, for information only. In Table 2 the report date is the date the public health unit received the report.

Table 1 now includes the following summary columns: total current month 2000 data; the totals for previous month 2000 and corresponding month 1999; a 5 year mean which is calculated using previous, corresponding and following month data for the previous 5 years (MMWR Weekly Feb 25, 2000:49(07);139-146); year to date figures; the mean for the year to date figures for the previous 5 years; and the ratio of the current month to the mean of the last 5 years.


This article was published in Communicable Diseases Intelligence Volume 24, Supplement, March 2000.