The Sydney 2000 Olympic Games (the XXVII Olympiad) will be the biggest peacetime event ever held in Australia. During the Games, all public health decisions will be centralised, with daily briefing sessions held to review emerging public health issues and facilitate responses. Infectious diseases will be monitored and reported through the Olympic Surveillance System, with particular attention to foodborne diseases and conditions spread via the respiratory route. This system relies heavily on the cooperation 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 disease surveillance in NSW.

Regular updates about the Forum will be available through the NSW Public Health Bulletin and communiqués from the Forum. Full and summary versions of Healthy People 2005 can be found at the NSW Department of Health website at www.health.nsw.gov.au/health-public-affairs/ publications/healthyppl/index.html. Comments about the work of the Forum are warmly welcomed and can be made by emailing

It will be one of the biggest events ever held, involving over 10,000 athletes and about 5,100 officials from 200 countries participating in 28 sports. Around 15,000 media will cover the Games and 300,000 domestic and international visitors will attend. Between 13 September and 3 October 2000, there will be an extra 150,000 to 200,000 people in the central Sydney area at any one time between the hours of noon and 10.00 p.m. Olympic venues are distributed among four precincts spread across the city from Bondi Beach to Ryde, Fairfield and Penrith. The Games period will extend for 60 days, commencing with the opening of the Olympic Athletes' Village on 2 September to the closure of the Paralympic Athletes' Village on 1 November. In between will be a series of mass gathering events, including the opening and closing ceremonies and multiple events in the city.

The logistical and organisational complexities of the Sydney 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games ('the Games') make coordination of the delivery of the associated health services of vital importance.

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