Surveillance summaries Surveillance summaries Surveillance SyStemS reported in

This article describes the surveillance systems that are routinely reported on in Communicable Diseases Intelligence (CDI). Communicable disease surveillance in Australia operates at the national, state and local levels. Primary responsibility for public health action lies with the state and territory health departments. The role of communicable disease surveillance at a national level includes: • detecting outbreaks and identifying national trends; • providing guidance for policy development and resource allocation at the national level; • monitoring the need for and impact of national disease control programs; • coordinating a response to national or multi-jurisdictional outbreaks; • describing the epidemiology of rare diseases that occur infrequently at state and territory levels; • meeting various international reporting requirements, such as providing disease statis-tics to the World Health Organization; and • supporting quarantine activities, which are the responsibility of the Australian government. State and territory health departments collect notifications of communicable diseases under their public health legislation. In September 2007, th