National Tuberculosis Advisory Committee (NTAC)

Role

The NTAC has an ongoing role to

• consolidate tuberculosis related activities including
  • enhanced national surveillance of epidemiological control indexes
  • drug resistance and treatment outcomes
• provide strategic expert advice to CDNA on a coordinated national and international approach to tuberculosis control
• develop, review and implement national strategic plans for the control of tuberculosis in Australia
• align strategic direction to be broadly consistent with the World Health Organization’s strategies to reduce the global burden of tuberculosis.

NTAC charter

For more information, see the committee's charter. 

Members

NTAC brings together representatives from: 

• tuberculosis programs across Australia
  • nurse managers with tuberculosis expertise
  • public health physicians
  • clinicians practicing in tuberculosis clinics
  • thoracic physicians and infectious disease physicians
• the Australian Centre for Disease Control
• the Public Health Laboratory Network (PHLN)
• Royal Australasian College of Physicians’ Paediatrics and Child Health Division
• Australian Government Department of Home Affairs
• Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
• the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Protection Subcommittee of the Australian Health Protection Committee.

Australian Government representatives

Organisational representatives

Meetings

NTAC meets 3 to 5 times a year.

Related committees or groups

NTAC is a subcommittee of the CDNA and works with:

• PHLN
• Communicable Diseases Genomic Network (CDGN)
• Tuberculosis Data Quality Working Group.

Publications

NTAC publishes its guidelines and position statements in the Communicable Diseases Intelligence journal:

• The Strategic Plan for Tuberculosis Elimination and Equity in Australia 2026–2030, 2026
• The use of whole genome sequencing for tuberculosis public health activities in Australia: a joint statement of the National Tuberculosis Advisory Committee and Communicable Diseases Genomics Network, 2023
• Consensus statement on the use of a four-month treatment regimen for drug susceptible tuberculosis in children (under 10 years of age) with uncomplicated disease, 2022
• Not everything that can be counted counts: defining and evaluating tuberculosis mortality in Australia, 2022
• Position statement on interferon-γ release assays for the detection of latent tuberculosis infection, 2017
• National Tuberculosis Advisory Committee Guideline: Management of tuberculosis risk in healthcare workers in Australia, 2017
• National position statement for the management of latent tuberculosis infection, 2017
• Tuberculosis notifications in Australia, 2014, 2017
• Infection control guidelines for the management of patients with suspected or confirmed pulmonary tuberculosis in healthcare settings, 2016
• Defining a tuberculosis cluster or outbreak, 2016
• Essential components of a tuberculosis control program within Australia, 2014
• The BCG vaccine: information and recommendations for use in Australia, 2013
• National Tuberculosis Advisory Committee multi-drug resistant tuberculosis information paper, 2007
• Guidelines for Australian mycobacteriology laboratories, 2006.

See annual reports on tuberculosis notifications in Australia in the Communicable Diseases Intelligence journal

Contact