The Health Protection (Notification) Regulations 2010 - updating notification of infectious diseases

New regulations (Statutory Notification of Infectious Diseases) are coming into force on the 6th April 2010

Notification of infectious disease by doctors has been a bedrock of health protection work in England and information provided by GPs enables surveillance and early intervention to prevent secondary cases.

• New illnesses have been added to the list including Legionnaire's Disease
• Doctors must now notify on cases where contamination from environment could have played a part i.e. such as with chemicals or radiation
• The fee for notification has been withdrawn
• Patient ethnicity has to be included on the form
• Notifications should continue to be made in writing using the forms contained in the notification books
   

In addition doctors should notify:

• Cases of any other infectious diseases if they present or could present significant harm to human health
• Cases of patients who die with, but not necessarily because of, any notifiable disease or other infectious disease or contamination that presents, or could present, significant harm to human health.

Please don't wait for laboratory confirmation before notification if reasonable clinical suspicion. If good reason to believe another doctor has already notified then no reason to do so but prior notification by the lab does not remove the doctors responsibility to notify.

For urgent notification of matters of serious public health significance contact the local health protection unit office or out of hours phone the local hospital and ask for the on-call public health/Health Protection Agency on-call.

Further details can be found at:

Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984, Health Protection (Notification) Regulations 2010
 

Health Protection Legislation (England) Guidance 2010

Local Health Protection Offices:

Hampshire and Isle of Wight Health Protection Unit:    0845 055 2022

Dorset Health Protection Team:   01202 851272
 

Wiltshire Health Protection Team:     01380 814000

SCHEDULE 1 Notifiable Diseases with effect from 6 April 2010

• Acute encephalitis
• Acute meningitis
• Acute poliomyelitis
• Acute infectious hepatitis
• Anthrax
• Botulism
• Brucellosis
• Cholera
• Diphtheria
• Enteric fever (typhoid or paratyphoid fever)
• Food poisoning
• Haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS)
• Infectious bloody diarrhoea
• Invasive group A streptococcal disease and scarlet fever
• Legionnaires' Disease
• Leprosy
• Malaria
• Measles
• Meningococcal septicaemia
• Mumps
• Plague
• Rabies
• Rubella
• SARS
• Smallpox
• Tetanus
• Tuberculosis
• Typhus
• Viral haemorrhagic fever (VHF)
• Whooping cough
• Yellow fever

 
SCHEDULE 2 - Notification Form    (please feel free to download onto your clinical systems for your use)