Page content: About notifications | Notes for interpreting data | Further information | Copyright & privacy

Many hundreds of infectious diseases have been identified, and almost all of them occur regularly all over the world, in most nations. Changes in lifestyle have led to new threats to public health from both old and emerging (new) infectious diseases. Constant vigilance is required to prevent the reappearance of diseases previously thought to have been conquered, and to identify new diseases.

In Victoria, the Department of Human Services conducts surveillance on infectious diseases to pinpoint outbreaks and to prevent the spread of infection. Notifications of infectious diseases from medical practitioners and laboratories are the fundamental component of the surveillance. For some diseases, investigation is initiated on the basis of clinical suspicion in the absence of laboratory confirmation. The investigations may include contacting the patient to obtain more detailed information. Note - the Communicable Diseases Section will not contact the patient without seeking the consent of the notifying doctor.

This section of the site contains:

• Tabulated summaries
• Descriptive reports
• Annual reports
• Victorian Infectious Diseases Bulletin

About notifications

Surveillance for communicable diseases occurs under the authority of the Health (Infectious Diseases) Regulations. These Regulations require medical practitioners and pathology laboratories to notify the Department when they diagnose certain communicable diseases. In 2001, the Regulations were revised to provide consistency with the list of nationally notifiable diseases. Diseases which were added to the list from 16 May 2001 were: Japanese encephalitis, invasive pneumococcal disease, influenza (laboratory confirmed), Lyssavirus (Australian bat lyssavirus and other lyssaviruses), cryptosporidiosis, hepatitis D and hepatitis E. Diseases removed from the list were: primary amoebic meningo-encephalitis, typhus, amoebiasis, hydatid disease, taeniasis, yersiniosis, chancroid, and Lymphogranuloma venereum.

View instructions on Notifying Cases of Infectious Diseases in Victoria.

Case definitions are used for each disease; summaries of these can be found with each disease article in the annual report Surveillance of Notifiable Infectious Diseases in Victoria. Analyses in these reports are based on notification date, that is, the date on which the notification was received by the Communicable Diseases Section.

Notes for interpreting data

Daily updates of preliminary data are available for notifiable diseases in the reports listed below but the data should be considered with caution because they may be subject to change. Each report contains data related to notifications processed by the Department of the Human Services up to the close of business on the dates specified. While the reports are updated on a daily basis there may be a lag between receipt and recording of notification for some diseases, particularly those with large numbers of notifications such as hepatitis C and Campylobacter infection. Please note that the accompanying commentary is updated on a weekly basis.

From 1 January 2005, notifications are counted in the Victorian dataset if the postcode of residence of the case is in Victoria. Postcode of residence of the case does not, however, necessarily reflect the place of acquisition of infection and therefore regional summaries should be interpreted with caution.

The Department has eight health regions within Victoria, three metropolitan and five regional areas. Each region is a composition of local government areas (LGA). Notifications are geocoded to LGAs by street address and postcode and then allocated to a DHS region.

Changes occur in the number of notifications reported in previous reports for some diseases. This is due to the ongoing maintenance and update of notification datasets as new information becomes available, or where errors are detected through data cleaning processes.

Copyright & privacy

These publications are protected by copyright and remain the property of the Department of Human Services. No part of these publications may be reproduced, distributed, transmitted or stored, electronically or mechanically, for any purpose, on any media, in any form or by any means whatsoever, without prior explicit written authority of the copyright holders.

The Department assumes no responsibility or liability for damages arising from the inability to use these publications or for any omissions from and errors in these publications.

Authorised by the State Government of Victoria, 50 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne.

All reports are updated each weeknight where possible

Further information

For comments or queries related to surveillance data included in these reports contact:

Trevor Lauer
Epidemiology and Surveillance Progam
Communicable Disease Control
Telephone: (61) 1300 651160

For HIV/AIDS enquiries contact:

Rebecca Guy
Epidemiology and Social Research Unit
Macfarlane Burnet Institute for Medical Research and Public Health
Telephone: (61 3) 9282 2290