Australia's notifiable diseases status, 1999: annual report of the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System

In 1999 there were 88,229 [corrected] notifications of communicable diseases in Australia reported to the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS). The number of notifications in 1999 was an increase of 3 per cent on notifications in 1998 (85,227) and the second largest reporting year since the NNDSS commenced in 1991. Notifications in 1999 consisted of 29,977 bloodborne infections (34% of total), 22,255 gastrointestinal infections (25%), 21,704 sexually transmitted infections (25%), 5,986 vector borne infections (7%),5,228 vaccine preventable infections (6%), 1,967 (2%) other bacterial infections (legionella, meningococcal, leprosy and tuberculosis), 1,012 zoonotic infections (1%) and 3 quarantinable infections (0.003%). Notifications of bloodborne viral diseases particularly hepatitis B and hepatitis C and some sexually transmitted infections such as gonorrhoea and chlamydia continue to increase in Australia. Steep declines in vaccine preventable diseases such as Haemophilus influenzae type b, measles, mumps and rubella continued in 1999. This report also summarises data on communicable diseases from other surveillance systems including the Laboratory Virology and Serology Surveillance Scheme (LabVISE) and sentinel general practitioner schemes. In addition this report comments on other important developments in communicable disease control in Australia in 1999.