Monitoring acute diseases during the Sydney 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games

The Sydney 2000 Olympic Games (the XXVII Olympiad) will be the biggest peac etime event ever held in Australia. During the Games, all public health decisions will be centralised, with dai ly briefing sessions held to review emerging public health issues and facil itate responses. Infectious diseases will be monitored and reported through the Olympic Surv eillance System, with particular attention to foodborne diseases and condit ions spread via the respiratory route. This system relies heavily on the co operation of key notifiers such as emergency departments, laboratories and general practitioners. The lessons learned during the Games, and the new and enhanced systems and linkages that have been developed to support it, will strengthen future dis ease surveillance in NSW.