Health Protection

To test Australia’s preparedness, the Australian Pandemic Plan was tested in a live exercise in Brisbane in October 2006. Components such as border responses to public health threats, lines of communication between various levels of government and the cohesiveness of emergency services were tested.A major focus of activity was Exercise Cumpston 06. This was the largest live simulation that has been carried out to test our preparedness for an influenza pandemic. The scenario involved importation of a new pandemic strain from a country where there was human-to-human transmission. The exercise tested several aspects of our preparedness, including public health responses at our borders and within all states and territories. The exercise involved a whole-of-government response with the participation and involvement of Federal Cabinet.

A large number of overseas visitors and observers watched the exercise. Overall, Exercise Cumpston 06 went very well, with excellent coordination between all participants. As expected, a small number of things did not go to plan. There are matters in our pandemic readiness that are currently being examined.

The International Health Regulations came into force in June 2007 and there was a lot of activity throughout the year to ensure we had the necessary public health infrastructure and legislative apparatus in place to make implementation possible. Although we are in a very favourable position to introduce the International Health Regulations, there is still work to be done through the National Health Security legislation to ensure their complete implementation.

A major focus of this year’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Health Ministers’ Meeting, in Sydney in June 2007, was the regional preparedness for avian influenza and regional implementation of the International Health Regulations. The conference also considered the diverse concerns of Australia’s regional partners.

In 2006–07, the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza was transferred from CSL Limited to the Victorian Infectious Diseases Laboratory. While the centre remained at CSL premises, the design for new facilities for the centre at Victorian Infectious Diseases Laboratory premises was finalised. The centre will physically re-locate to the new premises in 2008.

In addition, the National Trauma Centre, based in Darwin, has been further developed with the appointment of the two foundation chairs, Professor David Cooper and Professor Frank Plani. The construction and fit-out of the new centre are nearing completion. Despite work still to be done, the centre functioned without a hitch in the real emergency of evacuating injured passengers from the plane crash in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, in March 2007.