Annual Report of the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System, 1994

The lists of notifiable diseases in Australia have changed and expanded to include diseases such as hepatitis A, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, Ross River virus infection, HIV infection and salmonellosis.

Abstract

There were 58,074 communicable disease notifications for 1995 to the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System. Barmah Forest virus was reported separately for the first time with 756 notifications, including an outbreak on the south coast of New South Wales. There were fewer notifications of Ross River virus infection than in previous years. Notifications of ornithosis increased, reflecting an outbreak in Victoria. Measles notifications decreased significantly following the epidemic years of 1993 and 1994. Pertussis notifications remained high and the rubella notification rate was higher than in any recent year. Haemophilus influenzae type b infection notifications decreased every year since 1991 and reached a rate of 0.4 cases per 100,000 population in 1995. There were also decreases in notifications of Q fever, syphilis and yersiniosis in 1995. Highest notification rates were for campylobacteriosis, chlamydial infection (not elsewhere classified) and salmonellosis (not elsewhere classified), as was the case in previous years. (author abstract)