Prepared in accordance with the provision of Section 28 of the Public Sector Employment and Management Act and Section 12 of the Financial Management Act. The report summarises activities and outcomes during the year against the government’s framework for action, particularly Building Healthier Communities, to inform our stakeholders of progress, and future challenges, in improving the health of Territorians.

Submitted in accordance with the provision of Section 28 of the Public Sector Employment and Management Act and Section 12 of the Financial Management Act. The report summarises activities and outcomes during the year against the government’s framework for action, particularly Building Healthier Communities, to inform our stakeholders of progress, and future challenges, in improving the health of Territorians.

Submitted in accordance with the provision of Section 28 of the Public Sector Employment and Management Act and Section 12 of the Financial Management Act. The report summarises activities and outcomes during the year against the government’s framework for action, informs our stakeholders of progress, and future challenges, in improving the health of Territorians.

Submitted in accordance with the provision of Section 28 of the Public Sector Employment and Management Act and Section 12 of the Financial Management Act. The report summarises activities and outcomes during the year against the government’s framework for action, informs our stakeholders of progress, and future challenges, in improving the health of Territorians

Submitted in accordance with the provision of Section 28 of the Public Sector Employment and Management Act and Section 12 of the Financial Management Act. The report summarises activities and outcomes during the year against the government’s framework for action, informs our stakeholders of progress, and future challenges, in improving the health of Territorians.

The aim of the Northern Territory Government’s Growth Assessment and Action (GAA) program is to improve the growth and nutritional status of children up to 5 years of age living in NT remote areas. This involves routinely collected measurements of weight, height/length and haemoglobin from which were alculated the indicators height for age, weight for age, and weight for height according to the Center for Disease Control – Atlanta (CDC, 2000) rules (http://www.cdc.gov/growthcharts).

This annual report has been produced in accordance with Section 28 of the Public Sector Employment and Management Act and Section 12 of the Financial Management Act. The report highlights the financial situation of our organisation, and the achievements of our services and people. The report is designed to inform Parliament, people who use the department’s services, the general public and other stakeholders as well as government and non-government agencies about our service outputs and outcomes for 2007–2008.

The Medical Entomology annual report 2007/08 presents an overall picture of mosquito surveillance and control activities carried out in the Northern Territory in 2007/08.

The Medical Entomology Branch Report 2004-05 is intended to present an overall picture of mosquito surveillance and control activities carried out in the Northern Territory in 2004-05.

The Medical Entomology Annual Branch Report 2006-07 is intended to present an overall picture of mosquito surveillance and control activities carried out in the Northern Territory in 2006-07.

This report describes the epidemiology of mosquito-borne disease in Australia for the mosquito-borne disease season 1 July 2005 to 30 June 2006, in which the second largest number of notifications since 1995-96 was reported. Ross River virus (RRV) infections (66%), Barmah Forest virus (BFV) infections (23%) and malaria (9%) were the most common mosquito-borne diseases reported in 2005-06. National RRV notifications were the fifth largest on record. The Northern Territory had the highest rate of RRV notifications and the peak notification rate (in January 2006) was the third highest since 2000. National BFV notification rates were the highest on record. The Northern Territory also reported the highest BFV notification rate this season, peaking in February-March 2006, which was the highest reported BFV notification rate on record. BFV notification rates were significantly higher in teenagers compared to previous seasons. There were 731 notifications of malaria in 2005-06 of which none was reported as locally acquired. This was the third highest reporting period for malaria notifications since 2000. In contrast to previous years in which Plasmodium vivax was the predominant species, Plasmodium falciparum was reported as the infecting species in 45 per cent of the malaria notifications and Plasmodium vivax for 42 per cent of cases. Young adults in the 20-24 year age group had the highest number of cases and children in the 5-9 year age group accounted for 22 per cent of notifications. There were two cases of Kunjin virus (KUNV) infection and one case of Murray Valley encephalitis virus (MVEV) infection reported in 2005-06, all from Western Australia. Sentinel chicken surveillance data for flaviviruses and sentinel pig surveillance data for Japanese encephalitis virus are reported. There were 200 notifications of dengue virus (DENV) infection in 2005-06, of which 46 per cent (n=92) was reported as having been acquired overseas. Dengue serotypes 2 and 3 were detected in two outbreaks of locally-acquired dengue in Queensland this season.

This report describes the epidemiology of mosquito-borne disease in Australia for the mosquito-borne disease season 1 July 2006 to 30 June 2007, which was moderately low compared to previous seasons. Ross River virus (RRV) infections (55%), Barmah Forest virus (BFV) infections (29%) and overseas acquired malaria (11%) were the most common mosquito-borne diseases reported in 2006–07. The number, proportion and rate of national BFV notifications were the second highest on record since 1998-99. The Northern Territory reported the highest BFV notification rate this season. BFV notification rates were the highest in the 40-59 year age groups when compared to other age groups. National RRV notifications were the fifth largest on record. The number, proportion and rate of RRV notifications were moderately low this season compared with previous seasons. The highest RRV rate was reported by Western Australia from the Kimberley region. The highest age-specific RRV notification rate was observed in the 40-59 year age groups. Locally acquired dengue virus notifications were low this season compared to previous seasons, with a small outbreak of dengue serotype 3 in 39 cases confined to the greater Townsville region. There were 640 notifications of malaria in 2006–07 of which none were reported as locally acquired. This was the third highest number of malaria notifications since 2001. Plasmodium falciparum was reported as the infecting species in 47 per cent of the malaria notifications and Plasmodium vivax for 40 per cent of cases. Young adolescent and adults in the 15–29 year age group had the highest number of cases accounting for 32 per cent of notifications. Sentinel chicken surveillance data for flaviviruses and sentinel pig surveillance data for Japanese encephalitis virus are also reported.

This report describes the epidemiology of mosquito-borne disease in Australia for the mosquito-borne disease season 1 July 2004 to 30 June 2005. Ross River virus (RRV) infections (45%), Barmah Forest virus (BFV) infections (30%) and malaria (19%) were the most common mosquito-borne diseases reported in 2004-05. The Northern Territory had the highest rate of RRV notifications and the peak notification rate (in February 2005) was 54 per cent less than the previous season. The Northern Territory also reported the highest BFV notification rate this season, peaking in April 2005, which was the second highest reported BFV notification rate since 1998. National RRV and BFV notification rates were highest in the 45-49 year age group. There were 799 notifications of malaria in 2004-05 of which none were reported as locally acquired. This was the third highest reporting season for malaria notifications since 1998. In contrast to previous years in which Plasmodium vivax was the predominant species, Plasmodium falciparum was reported as the infecting species in 57 per cent of the malaria notifications and Plasmodium vivax for 34 per cent of cases. Children in the 5-9 year age group had the highest number of cases compared to previous years in which the peak number of cases tended to be in young adult age groups. There were four cases of Kunjin virus (KUNV) and two cases of Murray Valley encephalitis virus (MVEV) reported in 2004-05. Sentinel chicken surveillance data for flaviviruses and sentinel pig surveillance data for Japanese encephalitis virus are reported. There were 188 notifications of dengue virus infection (DENV) in 2004-05, of which 46 per cent (n=86) were reported as having been acquired overseas. Dengue serotype 4 was the most frequently reported type, accounting for 32 per cent of cases (n=60).

This report is intended to be used by any person or organisation interested in how this agency operates and what it does. Our Department works in partnership with other government and non government organisations to ensure the wellbeing of all Territorians. We work collaboratively with people in communities to ensure that individual needs are met. This Annual Report provides a summary of our agency’s achievements and highlights the important role all employees take in bringing together and delivering services in every part of our jurisdiction.

Annual biological rhythms are often depicted as predictably cyclic, but quantitative evaluations are few and rarely both cyclic and constant among years. In the monsoon tropics, the intense seasonality of rainfall frequently drives fluctuations in the populations of short-lives aquatic organisms. However, it is unclear how predictably assemblage composition will fluctuate because the intensity, onset and cessation of the wet season varies greatly among years.