Australia's notifiable diseases status, 2004: Annual report of the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System - Results continued: Table 4

The Australia’s notifiable diseases status, 2004 report provides data and an analysis of communicable disease incidence in Australia during 2004. The full report is available in 20 HTML documents. This document contains the Table 4 and the continuation of the Results section. The full report is also available in PDF format from the Table of contents page.

Page last updated: 30 March 2006

This article {extract} was published in Communicable Diseases Intelligence Vol 30 No 1 March 2006 and may be downloaded as a full version PDF from the Table of contents page.

Results, continued

Table 4. Notifications and notification rates (per 100,000 population), of communicable diseases, Australia, 2000 to 2004

Disease
Notifications Rate per 100,000 population
  2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004
Bloodborne diseases
Hepatitis B (incident)
410
418
392
349
275
2.1
2.2
2.0
1.8
1.4
Hepatitis B (unspecified)*
7,321
8,747
6,677
6,637
5,861
38.2
45.1
34.0
33.4
29.1
Hepatitis C (incident)
504
703
448
477
361
3.3
4.5
2.8
3.0
2.3
Hepatitis C (unspecified)*,†
19,110
19,792
15,906
13,911
12,667
99.8
102.0
81.0
70.0
63.0
Hepatitis D
26
20
23
28
27
0.1
0.1
0.1
0.1
0.1
Gastrointestinal diseases
Botulism
2
2
0
1
1
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
Campylobacteriosis
13,661
16,134
14,736
15,323
15,008
107.8
125.7
113.3
116.2
112.2
Cryptosporidiosis
1,144
1,621
3,272
1,225
1,573
6.0
8.3
16.7
6.2
7.8
Haemolytic uraemic syndrome
14
4
11
15
15
0.1
0.0
0.1
0.1
0.1
Hepatitis A
806
538
392
439
315
4.2
2.8
2.0
2.2
1.6
Hepatitis E
9
14
12
14
28
0.0
0.1
0.1
0.1
0.1
Listeriosis
66
64
62
70
65
0.3
0.3
0.3
0.4
0.3
Salmonellosis (NEC)
6,099
7,036
7,848
7,042
7,607
31.8
36.2
40.0
35.4
37.8
Shigellosis
490
567
507
444
518
2.6
2.9
2.6
2.2
2.6
SLTEC, VTEC§
43
45
59
52
44
0.2
0.2
0.3
0.3
0.2
Typhoid
56
81
70
51
73
0.3
0.4
0.4
0.3
0.4
Quarantinable diseases
Cholera
2
4
5
2
5
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
Plague
0
0
0
0
0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
Rabies
0
0
0
0
0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
Severe acute respiratory syndrome
0
0
0
0
Smallpox
0
0
Tularaemia
0
0
Viral haemorrhagic fever
0
0
0
0
0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
Yellow fever
0
0
0
0
0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
Sexually transmissible infections
Chlamydial infections (NEC)||
16,809
20,265
24,426
30,437
35,189
87.8
104.4
124.4
153.2
175.0
Donovanosis
22
32
16
16
10
0.1
0.2
0.1
0.1
0.1
Gonococcal infection
5,862
6,254
6,433
6,828
7,098
30.6
32.2
32.8
34.4
35.3
Syphilis (all categories)
2,028
1,846
2,015
2,012
2,296
10.6
9.5
10.3
10.1
11.4
Syphilis < 2 years duration
235
203
374
480
596
1.2
1.0
1.9
2.4
3.0
Syphilis > 2 years or unknown duration
1497
711
1,115
1,180
1,561
7.8
3.7
5.7
5.9
7.8
Syphilis – congenital
4
21
18
15
11
0.0
0.1
0.1
0.1
0.1
Vaccine preventable diseases
Diphtheria
0
1
0
0
0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
Haemophilus influenzae type b
26
20
31
23
15
0.1
0.1
0.2
0.1
0.1
Influenza (laboratory confirmed)
1,291
3,674
3,491
2,073
6.7
18.7
17.6
10.3
Measles
108
140
32
98
45
0.6
0.7
0.2
0.5
0.2
Mumps
212
117
69
82
102
1.1
0.6
0.4
0.4
0.5
Pertussis
5,711
9,325
5,570
5,159
8,557
29.8
48.0
28.4
26.0
42.5
Pneumococcal disease (invasive)
1,795
2,430
2,303
2,375
9.2
12.4
11.6
11.8
Rubella
313
266
254
55
33
1.6
1.4
1.3
0.3
0.2
Rubella – congenital
0
0
1
3
1
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
Tetanus
8
3
4
4
5
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
Vectorborne diseases
Barmah Forest virus infection
616
1,148
896
1,369
1,052
3.2
5.9
4.6
6.9
5.2
Dengue
197
180
169
854
326
1.0
0.9
0.9
4.3
1.6
Flavivirus (NEC)**
65
38
73
61
49
0.3
0.2
0.4
0.3
0.3
Japanese encephalitis virus
0
0
1
1
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
Kunjin virus††
5
0
19
12
0.0
0.0
0.1
0.1
Malaria
967
717
469
598
559
5.0
3.7
2.4
3.0
2.8
Murray Valley encephalitis virus
16
6
2
0
1
0.1
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
Ross River virus infection
4,160
3,256
1,458
3,832
4,000
21.7
16.8
7.4
19.3
19.9
Zoonoses
Anthrax
0
0
0
0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
Australian bat lyssavirus
0
0
0
0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
Brucellosis
28
21
39
19
36
0.1
0.1
0.2
0.1
0.2
Leptospirosis
249
249
163
132
166
1.3
1.3
0.8
0.7
0.8
Ornithosis‡‡
99
136
212
201
235
0.5
0.7
1.1
1.0
1.2
Lyssavirus (NEC)
0
0
0
0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
Q fever
548
685
784
583
440
2.9
3.5
4.0
2.9
2.2
Other bacterial infections
Legionellosis
470
309
317
340
310
2.5
1.6
1.6
1.7
1.5
Leprosy
4
9
6
5
5
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
Meningococcal infection§§
622
700
686
578
408
3.2
3.6
3.5
2.9
2.0
Tuberculosis
581
963
1,051
993
1,076
3.0
5.0
5.4
5.0
5.4
Total
90,143
105,588
101,718
106,193
110,929

* Unspecified hepatitis includes cases in whom the duration of infection could not be determined.

† In the Northern Territory and Queensland, includes incident hepatitis cases.

‡ Notified as 'foodborne disease' or 'gastroenteritis in an institution' in New South Wales.

§ Infection with Shiga-like toxin/verotoxin-producing Escherichia coli (SLTEC/VTEC).

|| Includes Chlamydia trachomatis identified from cervical, rectal, urine, urethral, throat and eye samples, except for South Australia which reports only genital tract specimens, the Northern Territory which excludes ocular specimens, and Western Australia which excludes ocular and perinatal infections.

¶ Laboratory confirmed influenza is not a notifiable disease in South Australia but reports are forwarded to NNDSS.

** Flavivirus (NEC) replaces Arbovirus (NEC) from 1 January 2004.

†† In the Australian Capital Territory, Murray Valley encephalitis virus and Kunjin virus are combined under Murray Valley encephalitis virus infections.

‡‡ In the Australian Capital Territory ornithosis is reported as Chlamydia not elsewhere classified.

§§ Only invasive meningococcal disease is nationally notifiable. However, New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory and South Australia also report conjunctival cases.

NN Not notifiable.

NEC Not elsewhere classified.

– The condition was not nationally notifiable in that year.

In 2004, the total number of notifications was the highest recorded in NNDSS since the system began in 1991. There was an increase of 4 per cent compared to the total number of notifications in 2003 (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Trends in notifications received by the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System, Australia, 1991 to 2004

Figure 2. Trends in notifications received by the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System, Australia, 1991 to 2004

In 2004, the most frequently notified diseases were sexually transmissible infections (44,604 notifications, 40 per cent of total notifications), gastrointestinal diseases (25,247 notifications, 23%) and bloodborne diseases (19,191 notifications, 17%). There were 13,206 notifications of vaccine preventable diseases; 6,000 notifications of vectorborne diseases; 1,799 notification of other bacterial infections and 877 notifications of zoonotic diseases (Figure 3).

Figure 3 . Notifications to the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System, Australia, 2004, by disease category

Figure 3 . Notifications to the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System, Australia, 2004, by disease category

The major changes in communicable disease notifications in 2004 are shown in Figure 4 as the ratio of notifications in 2004 to the mean number of notifications for the previous five years. The number of notifications of chlamydial infections and hepatitis E infections surpassed the expected range (5-year mean plus two standard deviations). Notifications of hepatitis B (incident) and meningococcal infections were below the expected range (5-year mean minus two standard deviations). Notifications for the remaining diseases were within the historical range.

Figure 4. Comparison of total notifications of selected diseases reported to the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System in 2004, with the previous five-year mean

Figure 4. Comparison of total notifications of selected diseases reported to the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System in 2004, with the previous five-year mean

* Number of notifications surpassed the expected range (i.e. 5 year mean +2 standard deviations).

† Number of notifications was less than the expected range (i.e. 5 year mean –2 standard deviations).

In the financial year 2003–04, there were 92,892 hospital separations in Australian hospitals with a primary diagnosis of infectious diseases (International Classification of Diseases, version 10, Australian Modification (ICD10–AM) codes A01–B99, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare). This represents 1.4 per cent of all hospital separations in th at period. A further 56,675 separations were recorded with a principal diagnosis of influenza or pneumonia (ICD10–AM J10–J18).1


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