Communicable diseases

Communicable diseases are diseases that can spread from person to person. Find out what we’re doing to prevent outbreaks and monitor these diseases in Australia.

Communicable diseases in Australia

Find out about diseases of concern in Australia, and frameworks and laws around managing diseases.

What we do

Discover our role in preventing, monitoring and managing communicable diseases in Australia.

Programs and initiatives

We fund programs and initiatives to reduce the impact of communicable diseases on Australia.

Who we work with

Several key committees and networks help us with our work on communicable diseases.

Latest news

Latest news

Nationally notifiable diseases

Health authorities report over 70 communicable diseases to us so we can track what is happening nationwide and respond to any outbreaks.

Our National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System tracks these diseases. 

Communicable Diseases Intelligence journal

This scientific journal publishes information about communicable diseases in Australia:

  • how often and where diseases occur
  • how many cases we have
  • methods to prevent diseases
  • methods to control outbreaks.

Series of National Guidelines (SoNGs)

These guidelines give nationally consistent advice to public health units about how to respond to notifiable diseases. 

The Communicable Diseases Network Australia produces these SoNGs.

Case definitions

We support networks to develop case definitions for health professionals to use when diagnosing notifiable diseases. See our collections of:

Latest resources

Latest resources

AISR fortnightly report No. 12 - 04 September to 17 September 2023

The fortnightly Australian Influenza Surveillance Report (AISR) includes information about influenza activity, severity, impact, at-risk populations, virology, and vaccine match and effectiveness. It also gives year-to-date data and comparisons.