National Tuberculosis Advisory Committee

Role

The National Tuberculosis Advisory Committee (NTAC) has an ongoing role to

• consolidate tuberculosis (TB) related activities including

  • enhanced national surveillance of epidemiological control indexes

  • drug resistance and treatment outcomes
• provide expert advice to the Communicable Diseases Network Australia (CDNA) on a coordinated national and international approach to TB control

• develop, review and implement national strategic plans for the control of TB in Australia.

Members

NTAC brings together representatives from: 

• TB programs across Australia
  • nurse managers with TB expertise
  • public health physicians
  • clinicians practicing in TB clinics
  • thoracic physicians and infectious disease physicians
• the Australian Government Department of Health
• the Public Health Laboratory Network
• the Australasian Society for Infectious Disease
• Royal Australasian College of Physicians’ Paediatrics & Child Health Division
• Australian Government Department of Home Affairs.

Meetings

NTAC meets 3 to 5 times a year.

Related committees or groups

NTAC is a subcommittee of the Communicable Disease Network Australia (CDNA) and works with:

• Public Health Laboratory Network (PHLN)
• Communicable Diseases Genomic Network (CDGN)
• Tuberculosis Data Quality Working Group.

Publications

NTAC publishes its guidelines and position statements in the Communicable Diseases Intelligence journal:

• See annual reports on tuberculosis notifications in Australia in the Communicable Diseases Intelligence journal
• Consensus statement on the use of a four-month treatment regimen for drug susceptible tuberculosis in children (< 10 years of age) with uncomplicated disease, 2022
• Not everything that can be counted counts: defining and evaluating tuberculosis mortality in Australia, 2022
• The use of whole genome sequencing for tuberculosis public health activities in Australia: a joint statement of the National Tuberculosis Advisory Committee and Communicable Diseases Genomics Network, 2023
• The Strategic Plan for Control of Tuberculosis in Australia, 2021–2025, 2022

• The Strategic Plan for Control of Tuberculosis in Australia, 2016–2020: Towards Disease Elimination, 2016 (superseded)

• Position statement on interferon-γ release assays for the detection of latent tuberculosis infection, 2017

• National Tuberculosis Advisory Committee Guideline: Management of Tuberculosis Risk in Healthcare Workers in Australia, 2017

• National position statement for the management of latent tuberculosis infection, 2017

• Tuberculosis notifications in Australia, 2014, 2017

• Infection control guidelines for the management of patients with suspected or confirmed pulmonary tuberculosis in heathcare settings, 2016

• Defining a tuberculosis cluster or outbreak, 2016

• Policy recommendation: latent tuberculosis infection screening and treatment in children in immigration detention, 2015

• Essential Components of a Tuberculosis Control Program within Australia, 2014

• The BCG vaccine: information and recommendations for use in Australia, 2013

• Position Statement on Interferon-γ Release Immunoassays in the Detection of Latent Tuberculosis Infection, 2012

• National Tuberculosis Advisory Committee multi-drug resistant tuberculosis Information Paper, 2007

• Guidelines for Australian Mycobacteriology Laboratories, 2006

Contact