 | | | | Medical Health Encyclopedia | |
Reportable diseases
Definition:
Reportable diseases are diseases considered to be of great public health importance. Local, state, and national agencies (for example, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) require that such diseases be reported when they are diagnosed by doctors or laboratories. This permits surveillance (i.e., the collection of statistics on the frequency with which the disease occurs), which in turn allows these agencies to identify trends in disease occurrence, as well as disease outbreaks. Text Continues Below
Alternative Names:
Notifiable diseases Information:
All states have a "reportable diseases" list. Although it is up to states to decide which diseases are reportable, most of these lists are similar with only a few variations depending on geographical location. The diseases are divided into several groups: - Mandatory written reporting. Examples are gonorrhea and salmonellosis.
- Mandatory reporting by telephone. Examples are rubeola (measles) and pertussis (whooping cough).
- Report of total number of cases. Examples are chickenpox and influenza.
- Cancer. This is reported to the state Cancer Registry (not all states have cancer registries).
A typical state list may appear as follows:
(Name of state) law requires the following diseases to be reported to the local health department, or the (name of state) Department of Health. Please contact....
Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) Amebiasis Anthrax * Botulism * Brucellosis
Campylobacteriosis
Cancer *** Chancroid
Chickenpox **
Chlamydial Infections Cholera * Coccidioidomycosis Colorado Tick Fever Diphtheria *
Echinococcosis Encephalitis (post-infectious, arthropod-borne, and unspecified)
Food-borne Illness, including food poisoning Giardiasis
Gonococcal Ophthalmia Neonatorum
Gonorrhea Granuloma Inguinale
Hemophilus Influenza, Invasive Disease (all serotypes) Hepatitis A Hepatitis B, cases and carriers Hepatitis, other Viral: Type C
Influenza **
Legionellosis Leprosy Leptospirosis Lymphogranuloma Venereum Malaria Meningitis, Aseptic and Bacterial Meningococcemia Mumps ** Pelvic Inflammatory Disease
Pertussis * Plague * Poliomyelitis *
Q-fever Rabies (Human and Animal) *
Relapsing Fever (tick-borne and louse borne) Rheumatic Fever Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever Rubella
Rubella, Congenital Syndrome
Rubeola *
Salmonellosis Shigellosis
Staphylococcal Diseases ** Syphilis Tetanus * Toxic Shock Syndrome Trichinosis Tuberculosis Tularemia
Typhoid *, cases and carriers Typhus * Yellow Fever *
* Telephone reporting required
** Report total cases only
*** Cancer should be reported to (state) Cancer Registry
The State Health Department will attempt to find the source of many of these illnesses, such as food poisoning or amebiasis. In the case of sexually-transmitted diseases the state will attempt to locate sexual contacts to assure they are disease-free or are appropriately treated if they are already infected.
| 
.gif)
