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Disease surveillance
National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS)
The NNDSS coordinates data on more than 70 nationally notifiable diseases.
Every day, the state and territory health authorities supply the NNDSS with de-identified notification data about new cases of notifiable diseases.
National Wastewater Surveillance Program
The National Wastewater Surveillance Program tests wastewater from sentinel sites across Australia to detect and monitor priority diseases, such as COVID-19 and influenza.
This will help us assess risk and be ready for future public health threats.
OzFoodNet
The OzFoodNet network monitors and responds to foodborne diseases in Australia to reduce cases of food poisoning.
Polio Surveillance Program
The Polio Surveillance Program monitors all polioviruses to:
- detect imported cases
- mitigate the risk of localised transmission
- provide ongoing evidence that Australia is maintaining its polio-free status according to World Health Organization (WHO) standards.
Respiratory disease surveillance
We monitor and report on the activity and severity of COVID-19, influenza, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and other respiratory diseases in the community.
We use surveillance systems to collect information that together builds a picture of the patterns in respiratory illnesses in Australia.
These systems include:
- the NNDSS – which collects information on notifications of respiratory diseases
- FluTracking – which tracks the spread of respiratory illness in the community
- Healthdirect – which provides information on the number of people seeking health advice for respiratory illness in the community
- the Australian Sentinel Practices Research Network (ASPREN) – which tracks acute respiratory infections in general practices
- the Influenza Complications Alert Network (FluCAN) – which tracks acute respiratory infections requiring hospitalisation
- the Short Period Incidence Study of Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SPRINT-SARI) – which tracks the sickest patients with acute respiratory infections requiring intensive care admission
- the Critical Health Resource Information System (CHRIS) – which tracks the impact of acute respiratory infections on intensive care units
- laboratories, including sentinel laboratories, National Influenza Centres, and the World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza – which provide test positivity data and virus characterisation information
- AusTrakka – which provides information on what COVID-19 variants are circulating
- the Australian Immunisation Register and the Australian Bureau of Statistics – which provide information on vaccination coverage and deaths associated with communicable diseases.
We identify our respiratory disease surveillance information needs through the Australian national surveillance plan for COVID-19, influenza, and RSV.
Bloodborne virus (BBV) and sexually transmissible infection (STI) surveillance
We run and fund surveillance programs to monitor BBV and STI in the community, including:
- the Australian Collaboration for Coordinated Enhanced Sentinel Surveillance (ACCESS) project – a national health surveillance network of STI and BBV
- the ATLAS network – which creates service-specific reports describing STI and BBV screening, positivity, treatment completion and outcomes for Aboriginal Community-Controlled Health Organisations
- the Kirby Institute – which oversees HIV surveillance in Australia in collaboration with us, state and territory health authorities.
Antimicrobial surveillance
We fund the Antimicrobial Use and Resistance in Australia (AURA) Project to conduct national surveillance of antimicrobial use and resistance.
This supports our efforts to prevent and contain antimicrobial resistance.
Pathogen genomics surveillance
We oversee the implementation of pathogen genomics into public health practice.
We support AusTrakka – Australia’s national genomics surveillance platform – for routine surveillance of approved pathogens as well as for outbreak investigation.
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease surveillance
The Australian National Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Registry (ANCJDR) monitors for Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in Australia.
CJD is a notifiable disease in all Australian states and territories.
Paediatric surveillance
We monitor severe and uncommon conditions in children through:
- Paediatric Active Enhanced Disease Surveillance (PAEDS) – which tracks children hospitalised with severe disease
- Australian Paediatric Surveillance Unit – which tracks children under 15 years with uncommon conditions.
Reporting and data sharing
NNDSS reporting
We publish NNDSS data in:
- the data visualisation tool
- fortnightly reports
- public datasets (influenza, meningococcal disease, pneumococcal disease and salmonellosis)
- annual reports.
Communicable Diseases Intelligence
Communicable Diseases Intelligence (CDI) is a peer-reviewed scientific journal with leading academic content focused on public health.
It provides open access information on the epidemiology, surveillance, prevention and control of communicable diseases in Australia and the near region.
Australian Respiratory Surveillance Reports
Our Australian Respiratory Surveillance Reports (ARSR) include information about acute respiratory illnesses – including COVID-19, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) – from all of our respiratory diseases surveillance systems.
National syphilis monitoring reports
We publish quarterly syphilis monitoring reports to present progress against:
- the goals in the National Syphilis Response Plan 2023 to 2030
- the indicators in the National syphilis surveillance and monitoring plan 2025.
Other reporting
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare publishes a communicable diseases snapshot.
Data sharing
We provide de-identified data to the World Health Organization (WHO) to support global disease surveillance.
The data we share with WHO does not include the personal information or health records of individuals – it is aggregated data about case numbers and trends.