Communicable diseases surveillance. Highlights for 4th quarter, 2006

Communicable diseases surveillance highlights for 4th quarter, 2006 (gastrointestinal disease, quarantinable diseases, sexually transmitted diseases, vaccine preventable diseases, vectorborne diseases), and surveillance outcomes from several reporting series as follows: National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System tables, 1 October to 31 December 2006; Laboratory Serology and Virology Reporting Scheme tables, 1 October to 31 December 2006; Australian Sentinel Practices Research Network, reporting period 1 October to 31 December 2006; Australian childhood immunisation coverage, 1 July to 30 September 2006 cohort, assessed as at 31 December 2006; Gonococcal surveillance, reporting period 1 July to 30 September 2006; National Enteric Pathogens Surveillance System, reporting period 1 October to 31 December 2006; HIV and AIDS surveillance, reporting period 1 July to 30 September 2006.. The NNDSS is conducted under the auspices of the Communicable Diseases Network Australia. The NNDSS collates data on notifiable communicable diseases from state and territory health departments. The Virology and Serology Laboratory Reporting Scheme (LabVISE) is a sentinel surveillance scheme which collates information on laboratory diagnosis of communicable diseases. In this report, data from the NNDSS are referred to as 'notifications' or 'cases' while data from the Lab VISE scheme are referred to as 'laboratory reports'.