Tuberculosis notifications in Australia, 2005

The National Notifiable Disease Surveillance System received 1,072 tuberculosis (TB) notifications in 2005, of which 1,022 were new cases and 50 were relapses. The incidence of TB in Australia was 5.3 cases per 100,000 population in 2005 and has remained at a stable rate since 1985. The high-incidence groups remain people born overseas and Indigenous Australians at 20.6 and 5.9 cases per 100,000 population, respectively. By contrast, the incidence of TB in the non-Indigenous Australian-born population was 0.8 cases per 100,000 population. Rates in the Australian-born, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous have been declining since 1991, while rates in the overseas-born have been increasing. TB control in Australia relies on pre-migration screening and provision of free and effective treatment.