Notifications of vaccine preventable diseases in Australia. Quarterly report (January-March 2000)

Vaccine preventable disease notifications for Australia with disease onset dates between January and March 2000 are reviewed. During this quarter, numbers of notifications for Haemophilus influenzae type b disease and measles were the lowest ever recorded, while those for rubella were the lowest recorded since before the epidemic of spring 1992. These are promising trends that are likely to represent a true reduction in disease incidence. Numbers of pertussis notifications declined compared with the last quarter of 1999, but remain high, making up 88% of notifications for the vaccine preventable diseases reported here.