Human Diseases

In 2021 Australia had no outbreaks of infectious diseases or similar occurrences caused by toxins that seemed to deviate from the normal pattern. Below is information on outbreaks of infectious disease and similar occurrences in humans.

Human diseases

The Australian Government Department of Health (Health), through the Office of Health Protection and Response, has overall responsibility for national communicable disease surveillance. State and territory health departments collect notifications of communicable diseases from doctors, hospitals and/or laboratories under their public health legislation.

In September 2007, the National Health Security Act 2007 received Royal Assent. This Act provides a legislative basis for, and authorises the exchange of information, including personal information, between states and territories and the Australian Government. The Act provides for the establishment of the National Notifiable Diseases List (NNDL), which specifies the diseases about which personal information can be provided. There are approximately 60 diseases on the NNDL which can be found at: http://www.health.gov.au/casedefinitions. The National Health Security Agreement, which was drafted in 2007 and signed by Health Ministers in 2008, establishes operational arrangements to formalise and enhance existing surveillance and reporting systems. Under the Agreement states and territories forward de-identified data on the nationally agreed set of communicable diseases to the Department’s National Notifiable Diseases System database at http://www9.health.gov.au/cda/source/rpt_2_sel.cfm for the purposes of national communicable disease surveillance. HIV and CJD are reported through different mechanisms.

Further information is collected from other national, jurisdictional and sentinel surveillance systems to supplement notifications data for some diseases. This includes data on syndromes, severity, strains and risk factors.

The Department of Health is responsible for timely and accurate intelligence-gathering and the analysis and reporting of communicable diseases data, for both current and emerging diseases. The Department also coordinates the provision of fortnightly summary reports through the Communicable Diseases Network Australia (CDNA), which can be found at http://www.health.gov.au/cdnareport. Quarterly data summaries and annual reports are published in Communicable Diseases Intelligence which is published on the department’s website at http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/cda-pubs-c....

The Department of Health also manages the OzFoodNet network. OzFoodNet is a collaborative initiative with States and Territories to detect and investigate outbreaks of foodborne and potentially foodborne disease, to provide better understanding of the causes and incidence of foodborne disease in the community, and to provide an evidence base for policy formulation.  OzFoodNet reports on a fortnightly basis to CDNA and quarterly and annual reports are published in Communicable Diseases Intelligence.

CDNA provides national public health co-ordination on communicable disease surveillance, prevention and control. It offers strategic advice to governments and other key bodies on public health actions to minimise the impact of communicable diseases in Australia and the region. Its members include representatives from the Australian commonwealth, state and territory governments, New Zealand, key organisations in the communicable diseases field, and others with relevant expertise. CDNA holds fortnightly teleconferences to share and evaluate the latest information and developments in communicable diseases surveillance and enables commonwealth and state health authorities to cooperate in taking prompt action to control outbreaks. CDNA also meets face-to-face three times per year.

The Public Health Laboratory Network (PHLN) is a collaborative group of laboratories, which have expertise and provide services in public health microbiology. PHLN’s vision is to be an action-oriented national public health microbiology network, providing advice and services that add value and form a foundation of the broader Australian public health system. The central purpose and role of PHLN is defined as the provision of leadership and consultation in all aspects of public health microbiology and communicable disease control. This is achieved through the continued development of a proactive network of public health laboratories to protect and improve the health of people of Australia.

PHLN is comprised of state and territory, expert, national and observer members. Each Australian state or territory is represented on PHLN from one or two organisations, as appropriate. Larger organisations with separate bacteriology and virology expertise may nominate a representative from each. National members include representatives from the Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness (ACDP) and CDNA. There is an expert member from the World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza. Observer members include representatives from Private Pathology, Forensic and Technical Intelligence - Australian Federal Police and New Zealand Jurisdictions.

Number of notifications of communicable diseases in humans reported to the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System, 2017 to 2021 (as of 4 April 2022)

Notes:

NEC – not elsewhere classified

^{^} COVID-19 became nationally notifiable in 2020.

^@ Invasive Group A streptococcal disease and respiratory syncytial virus became nationally notifiable on 1 July 2021.