Measuring infections in Australia: simple yet frustrating

[...]New South Wales, Australia's most populous state (32% of the population) continues to not record the most common bacterial cause of diarrhoea (Campylobacter spp) and was the last state to start recording the most commonly notified sexually transmitted disease, chlamydia.1,2 Problems with definitions also persist between jurisdictions for hepatitis B virus and hepatitis C virus infection, as well as the timing of acquisition, despite the potential public health implications of such differences.1 Furthermore, the fact that only South Australia, Western Australia, and the Northern Territory (about 19% of Australia's population, but 63% of its land mass)2,3 reliably recorded Indigenous status is annoying because it clearly affects the authors' ability to categorically link this important risk factor to disease rates and separate it from features such as remoteness or disadvantage. [...]detection rates might be higher in remote communities because of screening and more accurate detection.