Infectious Disease Notification Practices in Victoria, 2016-17

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Epidemiology
• Infectious Disease Surveillance

Background:

• Victoria, Australia, mandates infectious disease notification to the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).
• Regular audits assess notification practices, with a focus on data completeness and legislative compliance.
• This audit evaluated 2016-2017 practices, the impact of Enhanced Surveillance Programs (ESPs) on Indigenous status data, and established a baseline for future legislative changes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe infectious disease notification practices in Victoria during 2016-2017.
• To assess the impact of ESPs on the completeness of Indigenous status data.
• To provide a baseline for monitoring the effects of new notification legislation.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of notified cases (confirmed and probable) reported to DHHS between January 2016 and December 2017.
• Categorization of cases by year, notifier type (doctor, laboratory, or both), and condition type (urgent vs. routine).
• Comparison of Indigenous status completeness for three specific conditions (gonococcal infection, hepatitis B, hepatitis C) pre- and post-ESP implementation.

Main Results:

• A 50% increase in notified cases from 2016 to 2017, with a 277% rise in influenza notifications.
• Approximately half of all cases were notified by both doctors and laboratories.
• ESPs were associated with significantly improved Indigenous status data completeness (RR 1.36, p<0.001).

Conclusions:

• DHHS Victoria observed a 1.5-fold increase in case notifications in 2017, primarily due to influenza.
• The introduction of ESPs led to a significant improvement in Indigenous status reporting for targeted conditions.
• Interventions such as including Indigenous identifiers on pathology forms and data linkage are being explored to further enhance reporting.