The hospitalisation rate for notifiable infectious diseases ranged between 0.9 and 2.1 per 1,000 people over the period 2000–01 to 2019–20 but dropped to 0.7 per 1,000 in 2020–21 (Figure 2). Influenza was the most common cause of notifiable disease hospitalisations in most years over the past decade, though highly variable from year to year, ranging from 2,185 to 30,808 hospitalisations (from 10 to 125 to hospitalisations per 1,000 people). In 2020–21, however, there were only 368 hospitalisations for influenza, a rate of 1.4 per 100,000 people. This is consistent with the fall in the number of notified cases described above.
In 2020–21 there were more than 4,700 hospitalisations where COVID-19 infection was recorded. As per Australian coding rules (IHPA 2021), in almost all cases COVID-19 was not specified as the principal diagnosis. Instead, the most common principal diagnoses recorded along with COVID-19 were viral pneumonia (24% of cases), ‘coronavirus infection’ (19%), and symptoms such as cough (9.9%), fever (6.6%) and breathing abnormalities (4.8%).
See Hospitals for more information on hospitalisation in Australia.
Deaths
In 2020, more than 5,800 deaths in Australia were attributed to infectious diseases, a rate of 23 per 100,000 people. Just over three-quarters (78%) of these deaths were attributed to non-notifiable diseases, the most common of which were lower respiratory infections (almost 2,500 deaths, 9.6 per 100,000) (Figure 2, Figure 3).
In 2020, there were 905 deaths with COVID-19 as the underlying cause (3.5 per 100,000 people). COVID-19 was the most common notifiable disease causing deaths in 2020. Influenza, which was the most common cause of notifiable disease deaths between 2014 and 2019, was recorded as the underlying cause of 54 deaths in 2020. A further 1,306 deaths with COVID-19 as the underlying cause were registered in 2021 (ABS 2022). More information on deaths from COVID-19 is provided in 'Chapter 1 The impact of a new disease: COVID-19 from 2020, 2021 and into 2022’ in Australia’s health 2022: data insights. See Life expectancy and causes of death for more information on deaths in Australia.
For more information on infectious diseases, see:
References
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