A novel semi-quantitative methodology for national poliovirus reintroduction and outbreak risk assessment.

Background: Under the International Health Regulations (2005), World Health Organization Member States need to verify certification of polio-free status annually. In 2018, Australia sought to reassess and comprehensively characterise the risk posed by wild-type and vaccine-derived poliovirus introductions to national health security. However formal guidelines for national polio risk assessment were not publicly available.

Establishing thresholds and parameters for pandemic influenza severity assessment, Australia.

Objective: To implement the World Health Organization's pandemic influenza severity assessment tool in Australia, using multiple sources of data to establish thresholds and measure influenza severity indicators.

Methods: We used data from four reliable sources: sentinel general practitioner surveillance, hospital surveillance, a public health hotline and an influenza-like illness survey system. We measured three influenza severity indicators (transmissibility, impact and disease seriousness) defined using pandemic influenza severity assessment guidelines.

Tuberculosis notifications in Australia, 2011.

The National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System received 1,385 tuberculosis (TB) notifications in 2011, representing a rate of 6.2 cases per 100,000 population. While Australia has maintained a rate of 5 to 6 cases per 100,000 for TB since the mid-1980s, there has been a steady increase in incidence over the past decade.

Tuberculosis notifications in Australia, 2010.

The National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System received 1,353 tuberculosis (TB) notifications in 2010, representing a rate of 6.1 cases per 100,000 population. While rates of 5 to 6 cases per 100,000 population for TB have been maintained in Australia, since first achieved in the mid-1980s, there has been a steady increase in incidence over the past decade.