摘要：The objectives of national hepatitis C surveillance are to identify those at risk in order to appropriatelytarget prevention and care programs, and to evaluate the impact of these approaches. In 1998 theCommunicable Diseases Network Australia New Zealand (CDNANZ) appointed the Hepatitis CSurveillance Committee to develop and implement approaches for improved hepatitis C surveillance inAustralia. The Australian Hepatitis C Surveillance Strategy was endorsed in 1999 and provides aframework for improvements to national hepatitis C surveillance. The strategy covers two mainsurveillance activities: surveillance of incident and prevalent hepatitis C, and the long-term outcomes ofhepatitis C. The committee (now the CDNA Viral Hepatitis Surveillance Committee) has continued tofacilitate the implementation of the recommendations proposed. Progress towards improvement ofhepatitis C surveillance in Australia includes the development of standard case reporting for hepatitis C,collation of data on incident and prevalent hepatitis C from a range of populations at lower and higherrisk of hepatitis C, and collation of data from liver transplant registries. Advances in the implementationof the strategy are incremental. While there is enthusiastic commitment towards improving hepatitis Csurveillance in Australia, the number of cases, the capacity and competing priorities of State andTerritory health departments has meant that implementation has been challenging, highlighting thedifficulties in introducing new systems into an already complex situation
