• Summary
• Downloads
• Explanatory Notes
• Related Information
• Past Releases

Communicable diseases (including infectious and parasitic diseases) are those diseases capable of being transmitted from one person to another, or from one species to another. In 2000, infectious diseases accounted for 3.6% of all deaths in Australia (4,582 deaths). Influenza and pneumonia accounted for 64% (2,937) of deaths due to communicable disease. Death rates increase with age, and were greater for males than females in most age groups. In 1999--2000, there were 12,859 hospitalisations in Australia with a primary diagnosis of communicable diseases. Influenza and pneumonia were responsible for 20% (2,591) of hospital admissions due to communicable diseases.

Under the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS), state and territory health authorities submit reports of more than 50 communicable disease notifications for compilation by the Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing. In 2001, the diseases reported to NNDSS were revised to include cryptosporidiosis, influenza, pneumococcal disease, Japanese encephalitis, Kunjin virus, Murray Valley encephalitis, anthrax, Australian bat lyssavirus, and other lyssavirus infections. Diseases which were becoming rare or of less public health significance in Australia were removed from the NNDSS. These diseases were chancroid, lymphogranuloma venereum, hydatid disease and yersiniosis.

The provisional total of notifications to NNDSS in 2001 is 100,669, an increase on the total notifications in 2000 (89,788) (table 9.23). This increase in notifications reflects the inclusion of new diseases as outlined above. For the diseases reportable in both years, there was a 12% increase. In 2001, sexually transmitted infections were the most commonly reported communicable diseases, accounting for 27.8% of all notifications, followed by food-borne diseases (26%) and blood-borne diseases (24.8%). Chlamydia was the most commonly reported sexually transmitted infection (20,185 notifications, 72% of total), campylobacteriosis the most common food-borne disease (16,185 notification, 61% of total) and hepatitis C (unspecified) was the most common blood-borne disease (15,649 notifications, 62% of total). Compared with previous years there were increases in the total numbers of notifications of food-borne and vaccine preventable diseases. Increases in food-borne disease are due to a continuing increase in cases of campylobacteriosis and the inclusion in 2001 of cases of cryptosporidiosis for the first time. The total vaccine preventable diseases increased due to the inclusion of influenza and pneumococcal disease for the first time in 2001 and increases in reports of pertussis.

Decreases in notifications of measles, mumps and rubella reflect successful vaccination campaigns. Declines in tuberculosis (TB) have given Australia one of the lowest rates of TB in the world.

9.23 NATIONAL NOTIFIABLE DISEASE SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM REPORTS
		Notifications			Rate per 100,000 population(a)
		1999(b)	2000(b)	2001(c)	1999(b)	2000(b)	2001(c)
Disease(d)		no.	no.	no.	%	%	%
Blood-borne diseases
	Hepatitis B (incident)	303	395	420	1.6	2.1	2.2
	Hepatitis B (unspecified)	7,218	7,918	8,312	38.4	41.8	43.2
	Hepatitis C (incident)	396	441	589	2.6	2.9	3.7
	Hepatitis C (unspecified)	18,798	19,607	15,649	99.1	102.3	80.6
	Hepatitis D	19	27	21	0.1	0.2	0.1
	Hepatitis n.e.c.	-	1	-	-	-	-
Gastrointestinal diseases
	Botulism	-	2	2	-	-	-
	Campylobacteriosis	12,657	13,595	16,185	100.8	107.1	125.7
	Cryptosporidiosis	. .	. .	1,631	. .	. .	8.4
	Haemolytic uraemic syndrome	23	15	5	0.1	0.1	-
	Hepatitis A	1,554	812	534	8.2	4.2	2.7
	Hepatitis E	9	10	10	0.1	0.1	0.1
	Listeriosis	64	67	61	0.3	0.3	0.3
	Salmonellosis	7,147	6,151	7,113	37.7	32.1	36.6
	Shigellosis	547	487	568	4.4	3.8	2.9
	SLTEC, VTEC(e)	47	33	48	0.3	0.2	0.2
	Typhoid	68	58	84	0.4	0.3	0.4
	Yersiniosis	125	73	. .	1.0	0.6	. .
Quarantinable diseases
	Cholera	3	1	3	-	-	-
Sexually transmissable diseases
	Chlamydial infection	14,045	16,866	20,185	74.1	88.0	103.9
	Donovanosis	17	12	35	0.2	0.1	0.2
	Gonococcal infection	5,644	5,686	6,394	29.8	29.7	32.9
	Syphilis	1,844	1,755	1,392	9.7	9.2	7.2
Vaccine preventable diseases
	Diphtheria	-	-	1	-	-	-
	Haemophilus influenzae type b	40	28	26	0.2	0.1	0.1
	Influenza	. .	. .	1,327	. .	. .	6.8
	Measles	238	107	141	1.3	0.6	0.7
	Mumps	172	212	114	1.1	1.4	0.6
	Pertussis	4,417	5,942	9,565	23.3	31.0	49.2
	Pneumococcal disease	. .	. .	165	. .	. .	8.5
	Rubella	377	322	268	2.0	1.7	1.4
	Tetanus	2	6	3	-	-	-
Vector-borne diseases
	Arbovirus infection n.e.c.	62	69	37	0.3	0.4	0.2
	Barmah Forest virus infection	638	634	1,144	3.4	3.3	5.9
	Dengue	132	215	184	0.7	1.1	0.9
	Kunjin virus	. .	. .	2	. .	. .	-
	Malaria	732	951	718	3.9	5.0	3.7
	Murray Valley encephalitis	. .	. .	3	. .	. .	-
	Ross River virus infection	4,416	4,200	3,235	23.3	21.9	16.7
Zoonoses
	Brucellosis	52	27	19	0.3	0.1	0.1
	Hydatid infection	26	26	. .	0.2	0.2	. .
	Leptospirosis	323	243	250	1.7	1.3	1.3
	Ornithosis	84	100	140	0.9	1.1	0.7
	Q fever	515	573	694	2.7	3.0	3.6
Other diseases
	Legionnellosis	249	472	304	1.3	2.5	1.6
	Leprosy	6	4	4	-	-	-
	Meningococcal infection	591	621	670	3.1	3.2	3.4
	Tuberculosis	1,143	1,024	927	6.0	5.3	4.8
Total		84,743	89,788	100,669	. .	. .	. .
(a) Rate per 100,000 population is calculated using the estimated resident population at the midpoint (30 June) of the relevant calendar year. (b) NNDSS data for 1999 and 2000 revised after consultations with states and territories in December 2001. (c) Notifications data for the year 2001 were provisional at the date of analysis (6 July 2002). (d) Diseases reported to NNDSS from all jurisdictions except hepatitis B (unspecified) not reported from NT; incident hepatitis C not reported from Qld; campylobacteriosis not reported from NSW; donovanosis not reported from SA. Diseases under surveillance for which no notifications were received in the period 1999-2001 were plague, rabies, viral haemorrhagic fever, yellow fever, chancroid, lymphogranuloma venereum, poliomyelitis, Japanese encephalitis, anthrax, Australian bat lyssavirus, other lyssavirus n.e.c. (e) SLTEC/VTEC is shiga-like toxins and verotoxin producing E. coli infections.
Source: National Notifiable Disease Surveillance System.

9.24 NEWLY DIAGNOSED HIV CASES(a), AIDS CASES AND DEATHS FOLLOWING AIDS(b)
	Year of diagnosis
	Prior to 1993	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	Total
HIV cases(a)	13,953	1,078	1,015	930	915	815	760	725	746	777	21,725
AIDS cases(b)	4,217	845	954	809	669	381	315	189	253	178	8,810
AIDS deaths(b)	2,790	701	753	654	515	245	156	127	136	97	6,174
(a) Not adjusted for multiple reporting. Total includes 11 cases for which the date of HIV diagnosis was not reported. (b) AIDS cases diagnosed and deaths following AIDS in 1999, 2000 and 2001 were adjusted for reporting delays; AIDS cases diagnosed and deaths following AIDS in previous years were assumed to be completely reported.
Source: National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research, 'HIV/AIDS, viral hepatitis and sexually transmissible infections in Australia Annual Surveillance Report 2002', National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2002.

9.25 CHARACTERISTICS OF CASES OF NEWLY DIAGNOSED HIV INFECTION(a), Number of cases and proportion of total cases
			Year of diagnosis
		Units	Prior to 1993	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	Total(b)
Total cases		no.	13,953	1,078	1,015	930	915	815	760	725	746	777	21,725
Males		%	93.6	92.5	90.7	91.8	91.6	89.4	87.0	89.5	89.0	87.5	92.3
State/territory
	New South Wales	%	60.7	55.4	49.7	57.9	50.0	52.8	53.6	53.1	48.4	47.6	57.6
	Victoria	%	20.4	20.6	21.3	17.6	20.4	22.1	18.4	19.2	25.2	26.5	20.7
	Queensland	%	8.7	12.4	16.0	12.1	16.8	14.0	13.8	17.1	15.4	13.1	10.7
	South Australia	%	3.4	5.1	3.7	3.3	5.0	4.2	4.6	3.0	3.1	5.4	3.7
	Western Australia	%	4.7	4.7	7.3	6.3	6.1	4.6	6.6	5.4	6.2	5.8	5.1
	Tasmania	%	0.4	0.2	0.2	0.6	0.3	-	0.4	0.4	-	0.3	0.4
	Northern Territory	%	0.5	0.9	0.5	0.2	0.5	1.3	1.6	0.7	0.4	0.5	0.6
	Australian Capital Territory	%	1.2	0.6	1.3	1.9	0.8	1.0	1.0	1.1	1.3	0.8	1.2
Exposure category(c)
	Male homosexual contact	%	81.4	79.1	74.3	73.9	75.5	72.8	65.2	65.0	68.2	67.2	77.6
	Male homosexual contact and injecting drug use	%	4.3	3.6	6.3	4.9	4.0	4.6	4.6	6.1	3.4	4.6	4.0
	Injecting drug use(d)	%	4.8	3.5	3.4	4.6	2.8	3.1	3.4	5.8	4.4	5.5	4.5
	Heterosexual contact	%	5.6	12.8	13.7	15.3	16.6	18.4	25.6	22.2	23.6	22.1	10.6
	Haemophilia/coagulation disorder	%	2.6	-	-	0.1	-	-	0.1	0.5	-	0.1	1.6
	Receipt of blood/tissue	%	1.9	0.3	0.8	0.3	0.2	0.1	0.6	0.3	-	-	1.3
	Mother with/at risk of HIV infection	%	0.2	0.5	1.0	0.8	0.9	1.0	0.4	0.1	0.4	0.4	0.4
	Health care setting	%	-	0.2	0.3	0.1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
	Other/undetermined	%	22.1	9.3	5.2	7.9	9.8	9.4	8.6	9.8	8.2	10.8	17.3
(a) Not adjusted for multiple reporting. (b) Total includes 11 cases for which the date of HIV diagnosis was not reported. (c) The ‘Other/undetermined’ category was excluded from the calculation of the percentage of cases attributed to each HIV exposure category. (d) Excludes males who also reported a history of homosexual/bisexual contact.
Source: National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research, 'HIV/AIDS, viral hepatitis and sexually transmissible infections in Australia Annual Surveillance Report 2002', National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2002.