OzFoodNet: enhancing foodborne disease surveillance across Australia: Quarterly report, October to December 2003

Abstract

The Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing established the OzFoodNet network in 2000 to collaborate nationally to investigate foodborne disease. OzFoodNet conducts studies on the burden of illness and coordinates national investigations into outbreaks of foodborne disease. This quarterly report documents investigations of gastroenteritis outbreaks and clusters of disease potentially related to food occurring around Australia. For information on sporadic cases of foodborne illness, see Communicable Disease Surveillance, Highlights for 4th quarter 2003 in this issue of Communicable Diseases Intelligence.

This report summarises the occurrence of foodborne disease outbreaks and cluster investigations between October and December 2003. Data were reported from all Australian state and territory jurisdictions and a sentinel site in the Hunter region of New South Wales. The data in this report are provisional and subject to change, as results of outbreak investigations can take months to finalise. We would like to thank state, territory and public health unit investigators, public health laboratories, and local government environmental health officers who contributed data to this report.