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National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System, 2004
Annual report
In 2004, not all jurisdictions implemented the CDNA
case defi nitions (Queensland did not implement
the CDNA case defi nitions in 2004 and New South
Wales introduced it in August 2004). This has to be
kept in mind when comparing data across time and
between jurisdictions.
Results
Summary of 2004 data
There were 110,929 communicable disease notifications
received by NNDSS in 2004 (Table 2).
Notification rates per 100,000 population for each disease
by state or territory are shown in Table 3. Trends
in notifications and rates per 100,000 population for
the period 2000 to 2004 are shown in Table 4.
In 2004, the total number of notifi cations was the
highest recorded in NNDSS since the system began
in 1991. There was an increase of 4 per cent compared
to the total number of notifi cations in 2003
(Figure 2).
Figure 2. Trends in notifications received by
the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance
System, Australia, 1991 to 2004
Notifications
120,000
100,000
80,000
60,000
40,000
20,000
0
1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004
Year
Figure 3. Notifications to the National
Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System,
Australia, 2004, by disease category
12%
40%
5% 1%
17%
2%
infections surpassed the expected range (5-year
mean plus two standard deviations). Notifications of
hepatitis B (incident) and meningococcal infections
were below the expected range (5-year mean minus
two standard deviations). Notifications for the remaining
diseases were within the historical range.
In the fi nancial year 2003–04, there were 92,892
hospital separations in Australian hospitals with
a primary diagnosis of infectious diseases (International
Classifi cation of Diseases, version 10,
Australian Modifi cation (ICD10–AM) codes A01–
B99, Aust ralian Institute of Health and Welfare). This
represents 1.4 per cent of all hospital separations
in that period. A further 56,675 separations were
recorded with a principal diagnosis of infl uenza or
pneumonia (ICD10–AM J10–J18). 1
23%
Bloodborne diseases
Gastrointestinal
diseases
Other diseases
Sexually transmissible
diseases
Vaccine preventable
diseases
Vectorborne diseases
Zoonoses
Figure 4. Comparison of total notifications
of selected diseases reported to the National
Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System in 2004,
with the previous five-year mean
In 2004, the most frequently notified diseases were
sexually transmissible infections (44,604 notifications,
40 per cent of total notifications), gastrointestinal
diseases (25,247 notifications, 23%) and bloodborne
diseases (19,191 notifications, 17%). There were
13,206 notifications of vaccine preventable diseases;
6,000 notifications of vectorborne diseases; 1,799
notification of other bacterial infections and 877 notifications
of zoonotic diseases (Figure 3).
The major changes in communicable disease notifications
in 2004 are shown in Figure 4 as the ratio
of notifications in 2004 to the mean number of notifications
for the previous five years. The number of
notifications of chlamydial infections and hepatitis E
Chlamydial infection*
Dengue
Hepatitis B (incident) †
Hepatitis E*
Influenza
Kunjin virus
Legionellosis
Leptospirosis
Meningococcal infection †
Ornithosis
Pneumococcal disease
Ross River virus infection
Syphilis (all categories)
0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
Ratio
* Number of notifi cations surpassed the expected range
(i.e. 5 year mean +2 standard deviations).
† Number of notifi cations was less than the expected
range (i.e. 5 year mean –2 standard deviations)..
CDI Vol 30 No 1 2006 15