National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System current CDNA fortnightly report

The Communicable Diseases Network Australia (CDNA) holds fortnightly teleconferences to share and evaluate the latest information and developments in communicable diseases surveillance. This report provides a fortnightly summary on diseases of current interest and notifications of Australia's nationally notifiable diseases.

In this section:

National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System current CDNA fortnightly report

Communicable Diseases Surveillance

Fortnight 5: 27 February to 12 March 2010

NNDSS report print friendly version (PDF 45 KB)

If you are unable to download the PDF file please email: epi AT health.gov.au

Summary notes

Hepatitis A

Between 27 February and 12 March 2010, there were 11 notifications of hepatitis A, compared with 11 during the same period in 2009. In the last 90 days,[sup>1] there were 123 notifications of hepatitis A, a ratio of 1.7 compared with the five year rolling mean[sup>2] of 71.6 notifications for the same period. These cases were reported from Victoria (9), New South Wales (1) and Western Australia (1).

Hepatitis A notifications in Australia are typically overseas acquired, with 55% of cases in 2008 (the latest available enhanced data) known to have been acquired overseas. However, the increased notifications of hepatitis A are also in part due to the multi-jurisdictional outbreak of locally-acquired hepatitis A associated with the consumption of semi-dried tomatoes. The number of new notifications associated with this outbreak has been decreasing since 8 November 2009.

Listeriosis

Between 27 February and 12 March 2010, there were five notifications of listeriosis, compared with three during the same period in 2009. In the last 90 days,[sup>1] there were 26 notifications of listeriosis, a ratio of 1.5 compared with the five year rolling mean2 of 17.6 notifications for the same period. These cases were reported from Victoria (3), New South Wales (1) and Queensland (1).

All cases of listeriosis are followed up by OzFoodNet epidemiologists in the states and territories.

Chlamydial infection

This reporting period there were 2,365 notifications of chlamydial infection reported to the NNDSS. The cases were mostly notified from Queensland (802), New South Wales (463), Victoria (416) and Western Australia (349). Over the last 12 months there have been 64,733 notifications, which is 1.3 times the preceeding 5 years mean for the equivalent periods. Chlamydia continues to be the most notified sexually transmissible infection in Australia, with notification rates highest among 15-29 year olds.

Gonococcal infection

This reporting period there were 258 notifications of gonococcal infection reported. The cases were mostly notified from Queensland (54), Western Australia (52), New South Wales (49) and Victoria (49). Over the last three month period there have been 2,243 notifications, which is 1.1 times the preceeding 5 year means for the equivalent periods. Gonococcal infection notifications continue to have a slight upward trend and rates are higher among males than females.

Influenza (laboratory confirmed)

Nationally, there were 73 cases of laboratory confirmed influenza (seasonal strains and the pandemic (H1N1) 2009) notified this reporting period. Of these, 53 were diagnosed in this period.

The Australian Influenza Surveillance Report contains surveillance data and analysis of seasonal influenza and pandemic (H1N1) 2009, and is available at: www.health.gov.au/flureport

The latest case numbers of pandemic (H1N1) 2009 can be found at: www.healthemergency.gov.au

Pertussis

This reporting period there were 687 notifications of pertussis reported to the NNDSS, with the majority of notifications received this period reported from QLD (207), SA (176) and NSW (145). In the past 90 days1 there have been 6,237 notifications which is 2.1 times the quarterly five year rolling mean.[sup>2] In the past year there have been 28,008 notifications which is 2.5 times the five year rolling mean.[sup>3]

Nationally, pertussis notifications have decreased since reaching a peak in March 2009 reflecting a decline in notifications from NSW. However the timing of the epidemic across jurisdictions has varied. Notifications from Qld, Vic and SA remain high compared to their jurisdictional 5 year monthly rolling mean while others such as NSW, Tas, the NT and the ACT are now close to or below their 5 year monthly rolling mean. Note that while the 5 year rolling mean can be used as an indicator about the number of new notifications to expect for a given point in time, based on historical patterns it needs to be interpreted with caution as per interpretative notes below.

Top of page

Interpretative notes

Selected diseases are chosen each fortnight based on either exceeding two standard deviations from the 90 day and/or 365 day five year rolling mean or other disease issues of significance identified during the reporting period. All diseases reported are analysed by notification receive date. Data are extracted each Monday of a CDNA week.
Totals comprise data from all States and Territories. Cumulative figures are subject to retrospective revision so there may be discrepancies between the number of new notifications and the increment in the cumulative figure from the previous period.

1. The past quarter (90 day) surveillance period includes the date range (13/12/2009 to 12/03/2010).

2. The quarterly (90 day) five year rolling mean is the average of 5 intervals of 90 days up to (12/03/2010). The ratio is the notification activity in the past quarter (90 days) compared with the five year rolling mean for the same period.

3. The past year (365 day) surveillance period includes the date range (13/03/2009 to 12/03/2010).

4. The yearly (365 day) five year rolling mean is the average of 5 intervals of 365 days up to (12/03/2010). The ratio is the notification activity in the past year (365 days) compared with the five year rolling mean for the same period.

The five year rolling mean and the ratio of notifications compared with the five year rolling mean should be interpreted with caution. Changes in surveillance practice, diagnostic techniques and reporting may contribute to increases or decreases in the total notifications received over a five year period. Ratios are to be taken as a crude measure of current disease activity and may reflect changes in reporting rather than changes in disease activity.

NNDSS provisional fortnightly report of notifications from states and territories for the period 27 Februaryto 12 March 2010

Disease	State or territory								Australia	YTD 2010	Previous period	Last year period	Past quarter¹	Quarterly rolling 5 year mean²	Ratio past quarter/ 5 year mean*	Exceeded quarterly roling mean + 2SD) by	Past year³	Yearly rolling 5Yr mean⁴	Ratio past year/ 5 year mean*	Exceeded yearly rolling mean +2SD) by
Disease	ACT	NSW	NT	Qld	SA	Tas	Vic	WA	Australia	YTD 2010	Previous period	Last year period	Past quarter¹	Quarterly rolling 5 year mean²	Ratio past quarter/ 5 year mean*	Exceeded quarterly roling mean + 2SD) by	Past year³	Yearly rolling 5Yr mean⁴	Ratio past year/ 5 year mean*	Exceeded yearly rolling mean +2SD) by
Bloodborne diseases
Hepatitis (NEC)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.2	0.0		0	0.6	0.0
Hepatitis B (incident)	0	0	0	0	1	1	1	3	6	42	4	8	51	60.8	0.8		208	273.8	0.8
Hepatitis B (unspecified)	3	35	2	53	8	1	71	36	209	1,424	355	320	1,740	1,564.8	1.1		7,794	6,469.2	1.2	710.8
Hepatitis C (incident)	1	0	0	NN	1	0	1	1	4	42	5	6	60	92.2	0.7		285	404.4	0.7
Hepatitis C (unspecified)	14	108	8	106	10	1	76	48	371	2,284	545	514	2,759	2,850.0	1.0		12,486	12,273.4	1.0
Hepatitis D	0	1	0	2	0	0	0	0	3	4	0	1	6	8.2	0.7		29	36.2	0.8
Gastrointestinal diseases
Botulism	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.4	0.0		1	1.2	0.8
Campylobacteriosis	14	NN	5	200	50	23	208	85	585	3,515	678	562	4,187	4,419.2	0.9		16,154	15,996.2	1.0
Cryptosporidiosis	0	17	3	24	4	9	16	2	75	414	99	580	513	1,157.0	0.4		3,264	2,853.2	1.1
Haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	0	1	5	8.8	0.6		12	20.2	0.6
Hepatitis A	0	1	0	0	0	0	9	1	11	95	16	11	123	71.6	1.7	15.3	608	268.8	2.3	217.5
Hepatitis E	0	0	0	2	0	0	2	0	4	9	2	3	9	8.6	1.0		37	28.6	1.3
Listeriosis	0	1	0	1	0	0	3	0	5	25	10	3	26	17.6	1.5	0.7	97	60.6	1.6	27.5
STEC, VTEC	0	1	0	8	2	0	0	4	15	52	7	12	59	36.0	1.6		162	89.0	1.8	23.0
Salmonellosis	6	181	35	194	15	18	130	48	627	3,192	644	574	3,737	2,860.2	1.3	555.2	9,999	8,553.8	1.2	291.5
Shigellosis	0	1	3	5	1	0	2	6	18	131	25	18	157	188.6	0.8		599	651.8	0.9
Typhoid	0	2	0	0	0	0	1	0	3	25	6	8	33	27.8	1.2		103	80.2	1.3
Quarantinable diseases
Cholera	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1.4	0.0		2	4.0	0.5
Highly pathogenic avian influenza in humans (HPAIH)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.0	0.0		0	0.0	0.0
Plague	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	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	0.0		0	0.0	0.0
Severe acute respiratory syndrome	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.0	0.0		0	0.0	0.0
Smallpox	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.0	0.0		0	0.0	0.0
Viral haemorrhagic fever (NEC)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	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	0.0		0	0.0	0.0
Sexually transmissible infections
Chlamydial infection	55	463	92	802	93	95	416	349	2,365	13,992	3,217	2,475	16,632	12,314.8	1.4	452.8	64,733	48,050.8	1.3
Donovanosis	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1.8	0.0		1	6.4	0.2
Gonococcal infection	4	49	41	54	8	1	49	52	258	1,861	380	334	2,243	1,978.2	1.1	92.6	8,272	7,940.0	1.0
Syphilis < 2 years	0	6	0	9	1	0	1	4	21	157	36	59	220	250.6	0.9		1,181	1,007.8	1.2
Syphilis > 2 years or unspecified duration	3	31	2	7	NDP	0	14	4	61	354	91	66	441	413.6	1.1		1,659	1,755.0	0.9
Syphilis - congenital	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	3.8	0.3		2	11.4	0.2
Vaccine preventable diseases
Diphtheria	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.0	0.0		0	0.0	0.0
Haemophilus influenzae type b	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	2	3	0	1	3	5.2	0.6		17	20.0	0.9
Influenza (laboratory confirmed)^†	0	4	1	38	6	4	11	9	73	320	59	59	436	387.4	1.1		53,070	5,944.4	8.9	-
Measles	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	0	2	13	1	24	13	18.6	0.7		63	61.2	1.0
Mumps	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	11	2	6	13	72.0	0.2		141	300.2	0.5
Pertussis	6	145	9	207	176	9	117	18	687	4,971	950	1,157	6,237	2,997.0	2.1		28,008	11,019.8	2.5	7,589.5
Pneumococcal disease (invasive)	3	11	0	4	4	0	2	4	28	163	38	36	217	249.2	0.9		1,628	1,712.2	1.0
Poliomyelitis	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.0	0.0		0	0.2	0.0
Rubella	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	5	2	0	5	8.4	0.6		23	39.0	0.6
Rubella - congenital	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.2	0.0		0	0.8	0.0
Tetanus	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	0.6	1.7		2	3.6	0.6
Varicella zoster (chickenpox)^‡	0	NN	1	0	2	0	0	4	7	119	15	45	161	391.0	0.4		1,097	1,711.0	0.6
Varicella zoster (shingles)^‡	0	NN	2	1	10	0	0	11	24	344	66	100	450	560.0	0.8		2,630	2,026.5	1.3
Varicella zoster (unspecified)^‡	1	NN	0	164	27	0	0	49	241	1,479	282	280	1,822	1,197.7	1.5		6,787	4,674.5	1.5	991.0
Vectorborne diseases
Arbovirus infection (NEC)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	3	1	0	3	9.6	0.3		20	30.2	0.7
Barmah Forest virus infection	0	4	7	42	4	0	0	4	61	318	73	104	373	456.6	0.8		1,381	1,716.6	0.8
Dengue virus infection	0	3	2	7	0	0	1	13	26	117	23	177	142	243.6	0.6		730	443.6	1.6
Japanese encephalitis virus infection	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.0	0.0		0	0.2	0.0
Kunjin virus infection	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0.6	0.0		1	1.8	0.6
Malaria	0	2	0	3	0	0	3	1	9	85	21	20	106	176.6	0.6		500	653.0	0.8
Murray Valley encephalitis virus infection	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.0	0.0		4	1.2	3.3	1.1
Ross River virus infection	3	58	15	123	11	4	8	14	236	809	200	252	904	1,556.0	0.6		4,502	4,358.0	1.0
Zoonoses
Anthrax	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	0.4	2.5		1	0.4	2.5
Australian bat lyssavirus	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.0	0.0		0	0.0	0.0
Brucellosis	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	7	1	2	8	13.2	0.6		30	44.2	0.7
Leptospirosis	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	16	3	18	22	39.8	0.6		110	138.4	0.8
Lyssavirus (NEC)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.0	0.0		0	0.0	0.0
Ornithosis	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	9	0	0	13	28.0	0.5		61	148.0	0.4
Q fever	0	2	0	4	0	0	1	0	7	51	8	12	66	98.8	0.7		295	408.8	0.7
Tularaemia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.0	0.0		0	0.0	0.0
Other bacterial infections
Legionellosis	0	4	0	1	0	0	3	1	9	50	13	7	61	76.8	0.8		310	310.6	1.0
Leprosy	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	3.4	0.6		4	9.8	0.4
Meningococcal infection (invasive)	0	0	0	1	5	0	0	0	6	35	2	6	47	55.0	0.9		261	332.6	0.8
Tuberculosis	0	9	3	9	1	1	12	3	38	261	42	38	355	275.8	1.3	52.4	1,375	1,148.2	1.2	110.6
Total	113	1,139	232	2,075	440	167	1,159	775	6,100	36,813	7,922	7,900	44,463				230,739

* Ratio of the past quarter 90 day prior surveillance period to the past 90 day 5 year rolling mean, or ratio of the past year 365 day prior surveillance period to the 365 day 5 year rolling mean.

† Influenza (laboratory confirmed) data includes combined numbers for both seasonal strains and the pandemic (H1N1) 2009 strain. Case numbers for pandemic (H1N1) 2009 are extracted from NetEpi for NSW and Vic and from NNDSS for all other jurisdictions, while numbers for seasonal strains are extracted from NNDSS for all jurisdictions. For specific case number updates for pandemic (H1N1) 2009 see www.healthemergency.gov.au

‡ 90 day historical mean and ratios for varicella zoster (chickenpox); varicella zoster (shingles); and varicella zoster (unspecified) are based on 3 years data.
‡ 365 day historical mean and ratios for varicella zoster (chickenpox); varicella zoster (shingles); and varicella zoster (unspecified) are based on 2 years data.

NN = Not notifiable,

NDP = No data provided,

NEC = Not elsewhere classified

Dates used are:
1. Past Quarter (90d prior surveillance period): 13/12/2009 to 12/03/2010
2. Quarterly rolling 5Yr Mean (90d 5Yr Mean):
Quarterly rolling 5Yr Mean (90d 5Yr Mean) 1: 13/12/2008 to 12/03/2009
Quarterly rolling 5Yr Mean (90d 5Yr Mean) 2: 13/12/2007 to 12/03/2008
Quarterly rolling 5Yr Mean (90d 5Yr Mean) 3: 13/12/2006 to 12/03/2007
Quarterly rolling 5Yr Mean (90d 5Yr Mean) 4: 13/12/2005 to 12/03/2006
Quarterly rolling 5Yr Mean (90d 5Yr Mean) 5: 13/12/2004 to 12/03/2005
3. Past year (365d prior surveillance period): 13/03/2009 to 12/03/2010
4. Yearly rolling 5Yr Mean (365d 5Yr Mean):
Yearly rolling 5Yr Mean (365d 5yr Mean)1: 13/03/2008 to 12/03/2009
Yearly rolling 5Yr Mean (365d 5yr Mean)2: 13/03/2007 to 12/03/2008
Yearly rolling 5Yr Mean (365d 5yr Mean)3: 13/03/2006 to 12/03/2007
Yearly rolling 5Yr Mean (365d 5yr Mean)4: 13/03/2005 to 12/03/2006
Yearly rolling 5Yr Mean (365d 5yr Mean)5: 13/03/2004 to 12/03/2005

Help with accessing large documents

When accessing large documents (over 500 KB in size), it is recommended that the following procedure be used:

Click the link with the RIGHT mouse button
Choose "Save Target As.../Save Link As..." depending on your browser
Select an appropriate folder on a local drive to place the downloaded file

Attempting to open large documents within the browser window (by left-clicking) may inhibit your ability to continue browsing while the document is opening and/or lead to system problems.

Help with accessing PDF documents

To view PDF (Portable Document Format) documents, you will need to have a PDF reader installed on your computer. The Adobe Acrobat Reader is available free of charge from Adobe's website.