PDF file - Department of Health and Ageing

National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System, 2004
Annual report
While Australia has one of the lowest rates of
tuberculosis (TB) in the world, the disease remains
a public health problem in the overseas-born and
Indigenous communities. In 2004, 1,076 TB notifi cations
were received by NNDSS, a rate of 5.4 cases
per 100,000 population. There was an 8 per cent
increase in the number of notifi cations in 2004
compared to 2003. The notifi cation rates of TB were
higher than the national average in the Northern
Territory (14 cases per 100,000 population), and
the lowest rate occurred in Tasmania (2.3 cases per
100,000 population).
The highest incidence was reported in people
born overseas (21.7 cases per 100,000 population)
and Indigenous Australians (8.1 cases per
100,000 population). By contrast the rate in the
non-Indigenous Australian-born population was
1.2 cases per 100,000 population. For more details
see the tuberculosis 2004 annual report in this issue
of Communicable Diseases Intelligence. 49
Other communicable disease
surveillance
Laboratory Virology and Serology
Reporting Scheme
sentinel virology and serology laboratories around
Australia. LabVISE provides data on diagnoses of
a number of infectious viruses, parasites and fungi.
Interpretation of data from LabVISE is limited by
uncertainties regarding its representativeness, lack
of denominator data to calculate positivity rates, variable
reporting coverage over time and lack of consistent
case defi nitions. LabVISE has an important
role in supplementing information of diseases under
surveillance in NNDSS and in monitoring infectious
agents that are not reported by other surveillance
systems.
In 2004, a total of 12 laboratories reported 26,218
infectious agents to LabVISE. This represents a 14
per cent increase in the number of reports received
in 2004 compared to 2003 (Table 27). Most of the
reports were from South Australia (30%), Queensland
(27%) and Western Australia (16%) (Table 27).
Sixty per cent (n=15,608) of all reports received
by LabVISE were viral infectious agents, and the
remaining 40 per cent (n=10,610) were bacterial
or other infectious agents. Among viruses, herpes
viruses (33.5%; 5,268) were the most commonly
reported followed by ortho/paramyxoviruses (27%;
4,124) which includes infl uenza, parainfl uenza and
respiratory syncytial viruses (Figure 67). Among
non-viral infectious agents, Chlamydia trachomatis
The Laboratory Virology and Serology Reporting
Scheme (LabVISE) is a passive surveillance scheme
based on voluntary reports of infectious agents from
Figure 67. Reports of viral infections to the Laboratory Virology and Serology Reporting Scheme,
2004, by viral group
16.4%
0.4%
0.5%
6.7%
6.9%
Measles, mumps and
rubella
Hepatitis viruses
Arboviruses
Adenoviruses
Herpes viruses
Other DNA viruses
Piconrnavirus family
26.4%
Ortho/paramyxoviruses
Other RNA viruses
33.8%
6.2%
2.7%
CDI Vol 30 No 1 2006 73