Zoonotic and other diseases

Zoonotic diseases are a group of infectious diseases of animals that can be naturally transmitted to humans. In Queensland, these diseases are notifiable if they occur in humans:

• Anthrax
• Avian influenza
• Brucellosis
• Hendra virus
• Leptospirosis
• Rabies/lyssavirus including Australian Bat Lyssavirus
• Potential exposure to rabies/lyssavirus
• Ornithosis
• Plague
• Q fever
• Tularaemia

View the Queensland Notifiable conditions reports for weekly and annual data.

Zoonotic diseases

National reporting of zoonotic disease data:

• Annual report of the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System

Australian Bat Lyssavirus (ABLV)

Research on ABLV in Queensland:

• A human case of encephalitis due to a lyssavirus recently identified in fruit bats (PDF, 16KB) - Communicable Diseases Intelligence, 1996
• Australian bat lyssavirus infection: a second human case, with a long incubation period - The Medical Journal of Australia, 2000
• Australian Bat Lyssavirus in a child: the first reported case - (PDF, 820MB) American Academy of Pediatrics, 2014
• Potential Exposures to Australian Bat Lyssavirus Notified in Queensland, Australia, 2009−2014 - PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 2016

Q fever

Surveillance reports:

• Q fever in Queensland Report 2016

Research on Q fever in Queensland and Australia:

• Q fever – Lancet, 2006 (PDF,  522KB)

Other diseases

This group includes other bacterial and viral infections not easily classifiable into other groups, and some clinically notifiable conditions. These include:

• Acute flaccid paralysis
• Acute rheumatic fever
• Acute viral hepatitis (unspecified)
• Coronavirus (SARS/MERS-CoV)
• Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease
• Legionellosis
• Meliodosis
• Viral haemorrhagic fevers (Ebola, Margburg, Crimean-Congo and Lassa fever)

Acute flaccid paralysis (AFP)

National reporting on acute flaccid paralysis includes Queensland data:

• Australian Paediatric Surveillance Unit annual reports
• Australian National Enterovirus Reference Laboratory annual reports

Acute rheumatic fever (ARF)

National reporting on ARF and its sequelae, rheumatic heart disease (RHD) includes Queensland data:

• Rheumatic heart disease and acute rheumatic fever in Australia: 1996–2012

Research on ARF and RHD in Queensland and Australia:

• Rheumatic heart disease in Indigenous children in northern Australia: differences in prevalence and the challenges of screening – Medical Journal of Australia, 2015.
• Variability in disease burden and management of rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease in two regions of tropical Australia – Internal Medicine Journal, 2013.

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD)

National reporting on CJD from the Australia National CJD Registry:

• CJD: Surveillance of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in Australia

Legionellosis

Queensland Health reporting on legionellosis:

• Legionellosis in Queensland 2017 (PDF,769KB)
• Legionellosis in Queensland 2016 (PDF, 544KB)
• Legionellosis in Queensland 2015 (PDF, 422KB)
• Review of the prevention and control of Legionella pneumophila infection in Queensland, Chief Health Officer’s report (PDF, 386KB) Queensland Health, 2013

National reporting of Legionellosis:

• National notifiable diseases: Australia’s notifiable diseases status: Annual report of the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System

Melioidosis

Queensland Health reporting on melioidosis:

Melioidosis in Queensland 2012-2016 (PDF, 552KB)

Research on meliodosis in Queensland:

• Distribution of Burkholderia pseudomallei in Northern Australia, a Land of Diversity – Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 2014
• Melioidosis in north Queensland, 2000–2009 Communicable Diseases Intelligence, 2010.