In 2018, the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System received 1,438 tuberculosis (TB) notifications, representing a rate of 5.8 per 100,000 population, consistent with the preceding three years. Australia has achieved and maintained good tuberculosis (TB) control since the mid-1980s, sustaining a low annual TB incidence rate of approximately five to six cases per 100,000 population. The number of multi-drug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) cases diagnosed in Australia is low by international standards, with approximately 2% of TB notifications per year classified as MDR-TB. Australia’s overseas-born population continue to represent the majority of TB notifications (between 86% to 89% across the four reporting years) and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population continues to record TB rates around four to five times higher than the Australian-born Non-Indigenous population. Whilst Australia has achieved and maintained excellent control of TB in Australia, sustained effort is required to reduce local rates further, especially among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations, and to contribute to the achievement of the World Health Organization’s goal to end the global TB epidemic by 2035.

Since the introduction of COVID-19-related public health measures, notifications for most nationally notifiable diseases have declined when compared to previous years. Physical distancing, travel restrictions, and emphasis on hygiene are likely to have affected the number of expected notifications, with the greatest reductions observed among disease spread via person-to-person contact such as influenza, and among overseas-acquired infections such as dengue virus and measles. However, quantifying the magnitude of the effect of COVID-19 public health measures on communicable diseases in Australia will be difficult, due to confounding factors such as: changes in testing priorities in laboratories; diversion of resources to the COVID-19 response; changes in health-seeking behaviours; greater utilisation of telehealth practices; and financial impacts such as income loss and ability to afford healthcare. It is considered likely that these other factors will have also impacted notification numbers.