Communicable diseases surveillance

About communicable diseases surveillance

When talking about communicable diseases, ‘surveillance’ means the systematic collection, analysis and interpretation of data about a disease.

Impact

Our surveillance activities help us to:

• better understand and respond to national trends
• inform public health policy to reduce disease
• improve responses to major disease outbreaks.

Role of the CDC

Supporting national surveillance 

Our role in national communicable disease surveillance includes:

• leading the development and management of the National Wastewater Surveillance Program, expected to begin in mid-2025   
• coordinating foodborne disease surveillance and investigation at the national level, as the OzFoodNet central site, monitoring the need for and effect of national disease control programs
• monitoring more than 70 nationally notifiable diseases through managing the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS) 
• overseeing and supporting various surveillance systems, including:
  • NNDSS
  • Influenza Complications Alert Network (FluCAN)
  • FluTracking
  • Australian Sentinel Practices Research Network (ASPREN)
  • Short Period Incidence Study of Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SPRINT-SARI)
  • Critical Health Resource Information System (CHRIS)
  • Paediatric Active Enhanced Disease Surveillance (PAEDS)
• working with respiratory disease surveillance experts from state territory government agencies, research institutions, and sentinel surveillance systems through the National Respiratory Infections Surveillance Committee.

Reporting and data sharing 

We also:

• report on nationally and internationally critical conditions
• provide data to the World Health Organization to support global disease surveillance.

Ensuring data quality 

We coordinate surveillance planning and ensure agile, high-quality data to monitor communicable diseases, including by:

• identifying information needs through the Australian national surveillance plan for COVID-19, influenza, and RSV 
• supporting data management committees, including the 
  • National Arbovirus and Malaria Advisory Committee 
  • National Tuberculosis Advisory Committee.

Supporting health professionals and public health units

We support the Communicable Diseases Network Australia to develop and review:

• surveillance case definitions to help health professionals decide whether to notify authorities of a case
• Series of National Guidelines (SoNGs) to help public health units respond to notifiable diseases using best practice.

Related topics

Read more about: 

• communicable diseases 
• our role in emergency health management.