Argument for inclusion of strongyloidiasis in the Australian national notifiable disease list

Meruyert Beknazarova, Harriet Whiley, Jenni A. Judd, Jennifer Shield, Wendy Page, Adrian Miller, Maxine Whittaker, Kirstin Ross

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

23 Citations (Scopus)
105 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Strongyloidiasis is an infection caused by the helminth, Strongyloides stercoralis. Up to 370 million people are infected with the parasite globally, and it has remained endemic in the Indigenous Australian population for many decades. Strongyloidiasis has been also reported in other Australian populations. Ignorance of this disease has caused unnecessary costs to the government health system, and been detrimental to the Australian people’s health. This manuscript addresses the 12 criteria required for a disease to be included in the Australian National Notifiable Disease List (NNDL) under the National Health Security Act 2007 (Commonwealth). There are six main arguments that provide compelling justification for strongyloidiasis to be made nationally notifiable and added to the Australian NNDL. These are: The disease is important to Indigenous health, and closing the health inequity gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians is a priority; a public health response is required to detect cases of strongyloidiasis and to establish the true incidence and prevalence of the disease; there is no alternative national surveillance system to gather data on the disease; there are preventive measures with high efficacy and low side effects; data collection is feasible as cases are definable by microscopy, PCR, or serological diagnostics; and achievement of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) # 6 on clean water and sanitation.

Original languageEnglish
Article number61
Number of pages11
JournalTropical Medicine and Infectious Disease
Volume3
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 5 Jun 2018

Bibliographical note

© This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Keywords

  • Australia
  • Notifiable
  • Strongyloides stercoralis
  • Strongyloidiasis

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