Communicable Diseases Surveillance

What we do

Introduction to the work undertaken by the Communicable Disease and Surveillance Branch, Office of Health Protection, Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing.

The Communicable Disease and Surveillance Branch is responsible for ensuring appropriate national responses to communicable disease threats to the Australian population, in partnership with jurisdictions and other stakeholders. This includes the development of policies and systems for surveillance of communicable disease working closely with the Communicable Diseases Network Australia (a sub-committee of the Australian Health Protection Committee, AHPC). The branch provides secretariat support for a number of the CDNA sub-committees; the Ministerial Advisory Committee for Blood Borne Viruses and STIs (MACBBVS); and the Blood Borne Virus and STI Sub-committee (BBVSS) of the Australian Population Health Development Principle Committee (APHDPC). Branch activities include:

• national and international surveillance to identify outbreaks of communicable disease where there is a potential for severe outcomes for individuals, or widespread impact on the community;
• working with jurisdictions and other partners to develop and implement national strategies where the impact of diseases has the potential to be significant, for example blood borne viruses and sexually transmissible infections;
• working with jurisdictions to develop consistent guidelines for response
• funding for surveillance of food borne illness and the coordination of multi-jurisdictional investigation and response;
• funding for sentinel surveillance programs (such as for influenza surveillance) and laboratory analyses (such as strain typing for particular diseases);
• funding for community based organisations to deliver education and prevention programs,and research centres for work on epidemiology and population behaviour aspects blood borne viruses and STIs;
• managing policy responses to a range of communicable disease issues including ensuring the availability of Tuberculin for Tuberculosis testing, funding for the Australian National Registry for CJD, development of anti-venoms and related educational materials;
• identifying and analysing emerging and re-emerging communicable disease risks including those that threaten Australia’s northern border regions so that appropriate responses can be developed;
• strengthening disease surveillance systems including systems to assist in managing contact tracing capacity and for geographic analyses;
• development of agreed standards to support consistent surveillance across jurisdictions, and ongoing review of the National Notifiable Disease List, through CDNA; and
• supporting capacity building for epidemiology and surveillance in the region.
• Epidemiological analysis to understand the transmission of diseases and hence inform the targeting of interventions.