Megge Miller, Paul Roche, Keflemariam Yohannes, Jenean Spencer, Mark Bartlett, Julia Brotherton, Jenny Hutchinson, Martyn Kirk, Ann McDonald, Claire Vadjic

Results - Summary cont, Table 4

Table 4. Notifications and notification rates of communicable diseases, Australia, 1999 to 2003

Disease	Notifications					Rate per 100,000 population
	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003
Bloodborne diseases
Hepatitis B (incident)	301	408	412	406	337	1.6	2.1	2.1	2.1	1.7
Hepatitis B (unspecified)†,‡	6,813	7,248	8,139	6,822	5,833	36.0	38.8	41.9	34.7	29.3
Hepatitis C (incident)	439	469	678	444	460	2.3	2.5	3.5	2.3	2.3
Hepatitis C (unspecified) †,‡,§	18,378	18,864	18,982	16,156	14,169	97.1	98.5	97.8	82.2	71.3
Hepatitis D	19	26	20	19	26	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1
Hepatitis (NEC)	0	1	2	0	0	0.0	<0.1	<0.1	0.0	0.0
Gastrointestinal diseases
Botulism	0	2	2	0	1	0.0	<0.1	<0.1	0.0	<0.1
Campylobacteriosis||	12,372	13,641	16,094	14,722	15,372	100.9	107.1	125.2	112.2	116.5
Cryptosporidiosis	NN	NN	1,619	3,268	1,219	NN	NN	8.3	16.6	6.1
Haemolytic uraemic syndrome	24	17	3	13	15	0.1	0.1	<0.1	0.1	0.1
Hepatitis A	1,546	813	530	383	418	8.2	4.2	2.7	2.0	2.1
Hepatitis E	9	10	10	19	10	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1
Listeriosis	62	66	64	61	69	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.3
Salmonellosis (NEC)	7,017	6,225	6,977	7,863	7,011	37.1	32.5	36.0	40.0	35.3
Shigellosis	534	491	565	501	440	2.8	2.6	2.9	2.6	2.2
SLTEC, VTEC¶	51	42	45	53	49	0.3	0.2	0.2	0.3	0.2
Typhoid	63	56	74	70	51	0.3	0.3	0.4	0.4	0.3
Quarantinable diseases
Cholera	3	2	4	5	0	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	0.0
Plague	0	0	0	0	0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
Rabies	0	0	0	0	0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
Viral haemorrhagic fever	0	0	0	0	0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
Yellow fever	0	0	0	0	0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
Sexually transmissible infections
Chlamydial infection	14,082	16,927	20,213	24,294	30,161	74.4	88.4	104.1	123.6	151.7
Donovanosis	18	22	33	16	16	0.1	0.1	0.2	0.1	0.1
Gonococcal infection	5,587	5,901	6,238	6,308	6,611	29.5	30.8	32.1	32.1	33.3
Syphilis	2,029	2,067	1,803	2,017	2,056	10.7	10.8	9.3	10.3	10.4
Syphilis – congenital	0	4	21	13	10	0.0	<0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1
Vaccine preventable diseases
Diphtheria	0	0	1	0	0	0.0	0.0	<0.1	0.0	0.0
Haemophilus influenzae type b	40	27	20	29	19	0.2	0.1	0.1	0.2	0.1
Influenza (laboratory confirmed)	NN	NN	1,284	3,672	3,587	NN	NN	6.6	18.7	18.0
Measles	238	109	140	31	92	1.3	0.6	0.7	0.2	0.5
Mumps	183	216	116	68	76	1.0	1.1	0.6	0.4	0.5
Pertussis	4,355	5,988	9,309	5,569	5,106	23.0	31.3	48.0	28.3	25.7
Pneumococcal disease (invasive)	NN	NN	1,690	2,311	2,174	NN	NN	8.7	11.8	10.9
Poliomyelitis	0	0	0	0	0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
Rubella	371	323	264	253	55	2.0	1.7	1.4	1.3	0.3
Rubella – congenital	0	0	0	1	2	0.0	0.0	0.0	<0.1	0.01
Tetanus	2	8	3	4	4	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1
Vectorborne diseases
Barmah Forest virus infection	638	646	1,139	903	1,370	3.4	3.4	5.9	4.6	6.9
Dengue	131	217	179	223	868	0.7	1.1	0.9	1.1	4.4
Flavivirus (NEC)	51	46	33	21	81	0.3	0.2	0.2	0.1	0.4
Japanese encephalitis virus	NN	NN	0	0	0	NN	NN	0.0	0.0	0.0
Kunjin virus	NN	NN	5	0	19	NN	NN	<0.1	0.0	0.1
Malaria	717	970	712	466	601	3.8	5.1	3.7	2.4	3.0
Murray Valley encephalitis virus	NN	NN	5	2	0	NN	NN	<0.1	<0.1	0.0
Ross River virus infection	4,376	4,221	3,216	1,445	3,841	23.1	22.0	16.6	7.4	19.3
Zoonoses
Anthrax	NN	NN	0	0	0	NN	NN	0.0	0.0	0.0
Australian bat lyssavirus	NN	NN	0	0	0	NN	NN	0.0	0.0	0.0
Brucellosis	52	27	21	39	17	0.3	0.1	0.1	0.2	0.1
Leptospirosis	319	246	242	160	125	1.7	1.3	1.3	0.8	0.6
Ornithosis	80	102	135	206	211	0.4	0.5	0.7	1.0	1.1
Lyssavirus (NEC)	NN	NN	0	0	0	NN	NN	0.0	0.0	0.0
Q fever	517	578	684	789	550	2.7	3.0	3.5	4.0	2.8
Other bacterial infections
Legionellosis	250	473	309	687	328	1.3	2.5	1.6	1.6	2.8
Leprosy	8	4	7	6	4	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1
Meningococcal infection	588	628	678	689	550	3.1	3.3	3.5	3.5	2.8
Tuberculosis	1,145	1,063	948	1,007	944	6.1	5.6	4.9	5.1	4.7
Total	83,408	89,194	103,668	101,664	104,989

* Analyses in this report were based on date of onset, (except for hepatitis B and hepatitis C unspecified, where date of report of disease was used). Where date of onset was not available the date of specimen collection or the date of notification, whichever was earliest was used.

† Unspecified hepatitis includes cases with hepatitis in which the duration of infection can not be determined.

‡ The analysis was by report date.

§ In the Northern Territory and Queensland, includes incident hepatitis cases.

|| Notified as ‘foodborne disease’ or ‘gastroenteritis in an institution’ in New South Wales.

¶ Infections with Shiga-like toxin/verotoxin-producing Escherichia coli (SLTEC/VTEC).

NN Not notifiable.

NEC Not elsewhere classified.

In 2003, the total number of notifications was the highest recorded in NNDSS since the system began in 1991 and was an increase over the total in 2002 of 3.2 per cent (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Trends in notifications received by the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System, Australia, 1991 to 2003*

* The increase in notifications since 1991 reflects an increase in the number of notifiable diseases, more complete reporting by states and territories, as well as increased numbers of cases.

In 2003, the most frequently notified diseases were sexually acquired infections (38,854, 37% of total notifications), gastrointestinal diseases (24,655 notifications, 24%) and bloodborne viruses (20,825 notifications, 20%). There were 11,113 notifications of vaccine preventable diseases, 6,780 notifications of vectorborne diseases, 1,826 notification of other bacterial infections and 903 notifications of zoonotic diseases (Figure 3).

Figure 3. Notifications to the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System, Australia, 2003, by disease category

The major changes in communicable disease notifications in 2003 are shown in Figure 4, as the ratio of notifications in 2003 to the mean number of notifications for the previous five years. The number of notifications of chlamydial infection, Barmah Forest virus infections, Dengue and Kunjin virus infections in 2003 surpassed the expected range (5-year mean plus two standard deviations). Notifications of hepatitis B (unspecified) and hepatitis C (unspecified), and shigellosis in 2003 were below the expected range (5-year mean minus two standard deviations). Notifications for the remaining diseases were within the historical range.

Figure 4. Comparison of total notifications of selected diseases reported to the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System in 2003, with the previous five-year mean

* Notifications below the 5-year mean minus two standard deviations or above the 5-year mean plus two standard deviations.

In the financial year 2002–03, there were 92,366 hospital separations in Australian hospitals with a primary diagnosis of infectious diseases (International Classification of Diseases, version 10, Australian Modification (ICD10–AM) codes A01–B99, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare). This represents 1.4 per cent of all hospital separations in that period. A further 65,986 separations were recorded with a principal diagnosis of influenza or pneumonia (ICD10–AM J10–J18).

 

This article {extract} was published in Communicable Diseases Intelligence Vol 29 No 1 March 2005 and may be downloaded as a full version PDF from the Table of contents page.