Japan­ese encephali­tis virus (JEV) was declared a Com­mu­ni­ca­ble Dis­ease Inci­dent of Nation­al Sig­nif­i­cance on 04 March 2022 after the first human case was detect­ed in Queens­land just one day prior.

A coor­di­nat­ed approach was devel­oped to inform pub­lic health deci­sions on var­i­ous fronts – nucle­ic acid and genom­ic test­ing, sero­sur­veil­lance, and mos­qui­to mon­i­tor­ing. Col­lab­o­ra­tive­ly work­ing across teams with­in NSW Health Pathol­o­gy, NSW Health and oth­er juris­dic­tions, a key pri­or­i­ty for the team was to help inform vac­cine strat­e­gy and pub­lic health inter­ven­tions by iden­ti­fy­ing any unrecog­nised cas­es cir­cu­lat­ing before the first diagnosis.

This project demon­strates the impor­tance and val­ue of pub­lic health pathol­o­gy in respond­ing to emerg­ing pathogens and dis­eases of pub­lic health sig­nif­i­cance with the ulti­mate aim of improv­ing com­mu­ni­ty and pop­u­la­tion health outcomes.