A report from the Communicable Diseases Network Australia, January to March 2004.

Contact with farming environment as a major risk factor for Shiga toxin (Vero cytotoxin) – producing Escherichia coli O157 infec tion in humans. The Communicable Diseases Network Australia (CDNA) consists of communicable disease authorities from various Australian Government agencies and state and territory health authorities, in addition to expert bodies and individuals in the specifi c areas of communicable disease epidemiology, clinical management, disease control and laboratory diagnosis. The CDNA provides national public health leadership and coordination on communicable disease surveillance, prevention and control, and offers strategic advice to governments and other key bodies on public health actions to minimise the impact of communicable diseases in Australia and the region. In mid-March the full CDNA met in Adelaide, along with the CDNA Jurisdictional Executive Group (JEG). Further details of the meetings will be reported to Communicable Diseases Intelligence as outcomes are achieved. The major discussion points of these meetings were: • Business Rules are being developed and will result in protocols for all aspects of the CDNA and its subcommittees (including appointment of the CDNA chair and making diseases nationally notifi able); and • a workshop addressing the protocols around communicable diseases exposure on airlines and contact tracing to be conducted in Canberra in April 2005 was discussed. These face-to-face meetings also provided an opportunity to conduct a joint meeting between the CDNA JEG and the National Immunisation Committee (a CDNA subcommittee). Outcomes of this meeting will be detailed in forthcoming reports to Communicable Diseases Intelligence. In summary the joint CDNA JEG/NIC meeting resolved to: • re-establish the Measles Elimination Advisory Committee; and • conduct varicella surveillance in support of the Australian Government's new varicella immuni-sation program. The Improving Indigenous Identifi ers in Communicable Disease Reporting Project (IIICDRP) report was fi nalised in late 2004 and is the result of over four years collaboration between the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing (DoHA), the IIICDRP Steering Committee and various stakeholders. CDNA established a working group to consider implications of the recommendations of the IIICDRP report.