Key Learning Points

• Notification of infectious diseases is a legal requirement in the UK
• Reporting notifiable diseases to the CCDC at the local health protection unit enables prompt action, i.e. preventive and control measures
• Data collected can be used to monitor local disease occurrence and explore local and national trends in infectious diseases. This is called surveillance
• Comparing notifications of disease with data obtained from other sources can give indications of a change in the epidemiology of the disease and the effectiveness of interventions
• Good surveillance depends on completeness of notification of infectious diseases. This can be improved by ensuring that junior doctors are aware of their legal obligations, the rationale and the purpose of notification, and that infectious diseases are reported to the proper authorities

Pitfalls

• Forgetting the wider public health implications when assessing a patient; always take a full social history.
• Not taking a detailed travel, exposures, immunosupression and drug history in any patient presenting with a fever or history of fever.
• For those patients returning from the tropics with history of fever – don’t forget to always send blood cultures, blood borne viral screen and malaria rapid diagnostic test (a positive result needs to be acted upon the same day).
• Waiting for laboratory confirmation of the suspected infection or contamination before sending a notification form to the local HPT.