摘要：The Australian Paediatric Surveillance Unit (APSU) conducts active national surveillance ofconditions affecting children, including communicable diseases and their complications. Bymailing over 900 clinicians each month the APSU gathers national information, not available fromother sources, about the incidence, demographic and clinical features of these conditions. In someconditions APSU data supplements that available from existing schemes. The APSU hasmonitored 20 conditions to date. Eight of these are communicable diseases or their complications,two have a possible infectious aetiology and one frequently presents with infection. Since itsinception in 1993 the return rate of monthly report cards by the mailing list has increased from 88per cent to 94 per cent. Return rate of questionnaires for the communicable diseases studiedranged from 74 per cent to 100 per cent. Studies have enabled estimation of disease incidence,identification of risk factors and possible preventive strategies and provision of detailed clinica linformation. Although the APSU cannot serve a public health role by case identification andcontact tracing it provides information that contributes to the communicable disease strategy forAustralia
