摘要：The federal nature of the Australian health system meansthat the different jurisdictions administer and deliverservices appropriate to the diverse needs of populations ofvaried composition and density distributed over a continent.The different approaches that have developed as aconsequence of this approach pose some problems inrelation to defining and dealing with issues of public healthmicrobiology. A number of laboratory-based programmeshave emerged that examine specific issues of surveillanceof infectious disease across the 'jurisdictional divide'. Forexample, significant data have been gathered bymycobacterial and enteric pathogen programmes overmany years, to name but two. This article briefly describesthe origins and aims, organisation and structure, and past,present and future functions of another of theseprogrammes, the National Neisseria Network (NNN).
