Communicable Diseases

A significant part of the work involves partnerships and collaboration with stakeholders in Primary Health Networks and Hospitals, laboratories, residential aged care facilities, child care centres, schools and across Government departments such as Biosecurity Queensland, Department of Agriculture, Department of Environment and Heritage Protection and local governments.

Services

Investigate and respond to increases in incidence of notifiable conditions, implement control and prevention strategies as necessary, including seasonal media campaigns and other communication initiatives.
Respond to reports of notifiable conditions, focusing on case findings, contact tracing and case and contact management in line with state and national protocols and guidelines.
Provide expert public health advice, support and training to medical practitioners and other health care professionals about communicable disease prevention and control, including management of non-notifiable conditions such as scabies and hand foot and mouth disease in addition to advice related to notifiable conditions.
Identify, investigate and control outbreaks of food-borne illness, in partnership with Environmental Health and the Health Surveillance team.
Provision of after-hours, on-call function for urgent public health issues.
Assist with investigation and management of institutional respiratory and gastroenteritis outbreaks, such as in early childhood and aged care facilities.
Investigation and management of communicable disease incidents, such as measles outbreaks and Hendra virus events.
Work proactively with partner Government and non-government agencies to prevent the spread and reduce the burden of communicable diseases in the Metro North area.

Resources

Title	Author
Australian national notifiable diseases and case definitions	Department of Health
Biosecurity	Department of Agriculture and Fisheries
Communicable disease control guidance	Queensland Health
Health Translations (translated information about health and wellbeing)	Victorian Department of Health and Human Services
Notifiable conditions surveillance reports	Queensland Health

For Aged Care Facilities

Title	Author
Clean up for gastroenteritis outbreak prevention	Queensland Health
Disease prevention in residential care facilities	Queensland Health
Influenza in residential care facilities	Queensland Health

For Child Care Facilities

Title	Author
Early Childhood Education and Care	Department of Education
Staying healthy: preventing infectious diseases in early childhood education and care services	NHMRC
Timeout poster	Queensland Health
Viral or suspected viral gastroenteritis outbreaks	Queensland Health

Videos

Preparing for the flu season

In this short video Public Health Physician Dr James Smith from Metro North Public Health Unit speaks about the important measures aged care facilities can take to help prepare.

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A practical guide to catch up vaccination

Are your children’s vaccinations up to date? This video provides a practical guide to develop a catch-up schedule for a child who is behind with vaccinations.

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HRIG Administration

This video provides a practical guide for clinicians on the administration of rabies immunoglobulin as part of post-exposure prophylaxis.

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Contact us

Phone: (07) 3624 1111
Fax: (07) 3624 1159
Postal Address: Locked Bag 2, Stafford DC 4053
Email: MNPHU_BusinessServices@
health.qld.gov.au