title: Communicable diseases surveillance.
abstract: Communicable diseases surveillance highlights for 1st quarter, 2008 (vectorborne diseases, vaccine preventable diseases, other bacterial infections), and surveillance outcomes from several reporting series as follows: National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System tables, 1 January to 31 March 2008; Laboratory Serology and Virology Reporting Scheme tables, 1 January to 31 March 2008; Australian Sentinel Practices Research Network, reporting period 1 January to 31 March 2008; Australian childhood immunisation coverage, 1 October to 31 December 2007 cohort, assessed as at 31 March 2008; National Enteric Pathogens Surveillance System, reporting period 1 January to 31 March 2008; Meningococcal surveillance, reporting period 1 January to 31 March 2008. The NNDSS is conducted under the auspices of the Communicable Diseases Network Australia. NNDSS collates data on notifiable communicable diseases from state and territory health departments. The Virology and Serology Laboratory Reporting Scheme (LabVISE) is a sentinel surveillance scheme which collates information on laboratory diagnosis of communicable diseases. In this report, data from the NNDSS are referred to as 'notifications' or 'cases' while data from the LabVISE scheme are referred to as 'laboratory reports'.