Notification Procedures

Common Childhood Exanthems Public Health 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

Table 1: Notifiable diseases
Acute encephalitis	Paratyphoid fever
Acute poliomyelitis	Plague
Anthrax	Rabies
Cholera	Relapsing fever
Diphtheria	Rubella
Dysentery	Scarlet fever
Food poisoning	Smallpox
Leprosy	Tetanus
Leptospirosis	Tuberculosis
Malaria	Typhoid fever
Measles	Typhus fever
Meningitis	Viral haemorrhagic fever
Meningococcal septicaemia	Viral hepatitis
Mumps	Whooping cough
Ophthalmia neonatorum	Yellow fever
COVID-19

Several of the diseases referred to in this session are notifiable infectious diseases.

Table 2

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	Non-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

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

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