Notification Procedures
Notification of specified infectious diseases is a legal requirement under the Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984 and the Public Health (Infectious Diseases) Regulations 1988.
Clinically suspicious cases of a notifiable disease must be notified, although notification can be changed later if the initial diagnosis proves incorrect. The primary purpose of notification is to identify potential outbreaks and epidemics rapidly.
At the time of writing, there are 30 notifiable diseases. A fully up-to-date list is published on the Health Protection Agency website. Depending in which devolved region of the United Kingdom you work, please consult guidance from your local public health authority as some variances exist in what diseases require notification.
Table 1: Notifiable diseases
| Acute encephalitis | Diphtheria | Mumps |
| Acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) or Acute flaccid myelitis (AFM) | Enteric fever (typhoid or paratyphoid fever) | Neonatal herpes |
| Acute infectious hepatitis (A/B/C) | Food poisoning | Plague |
| Acute meningitis | Haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS) | Rabies |
| Acute poliomyelitis | Infectious bloody diarrhoea | Rubella |
| Anthrax | Influenza of zoonotic origin | Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) |
| Botulism | Invasive group A streptococcal disease | Scarlet fever |
| Brucellosis | Legionnaires’ disease | Smallpox |
| Chickenpox (varicella) | Leprosy | Tetanus |
| Cholera | Malaria | Tuberculosis |
| Congenital syphilis | Measles | Typhus |
| COVID-19 | Meningococcal septicaemia | Viral haemorrhagic fever (VHF) |
| Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) | Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) | Whooping cough |
| Disseminated gonococcal infection (DGI) | Mpox (previously known as monkeypox) | Yellow fever |
Several of the diseases referred to in this session are notifiable infectious diseases.
Table 2: Notification status of diseases referred to in this session
| Name of Disease | Status |
|---|---|
| Measles | Notifiable |
| Scarlet fever | Notifiable |
| Rubella | Notifiable |
| Erythema infectiosum | Non-notifiable |
| Exanthem subitum | Non-notifiable |
| Chicken pox | Notifiable |
| Gianotti-Crosti syndrome | Non-notifiable |
| COVID-19 | Notifiable |
Notification procedures may vary locally but are based on a number of common key points.
Table 3: Notification procedures
| Question | Response |
|---|---|
| Who is responsible for notification? | The doctor attending the patient when diagnosed |
| What should I notify? | Any clinical manifestation of a notifiable disease |
| When should I notify? | On suspicion or diagnosis of clinical disease |
| How do I notify? | On a form available from the proper officer of the local authority; also by telephone or fax if urgent action is likely to be required |
| Why should I notify? | So that the proper officer or Consultant in Communicable Disease Control can take appropriate action to investigate and control spread, and to provide data for local and national surveillance |