Reviewed on : 13 Feb 2020

Reviewed by : GP Gateway Editor

Expires : 13 Feb 2022

Notification of Infectious Diseases

Registered medical practitioners (RMPs) have a statutory duty to notify the ‘proper officer’ at their local council or local health protection team (HPT) of suspected cases of certain infectious diseases.

Complete a notification form immediately on diagnosis of a suspected notifiable disease. Don’t wait for laboratory confirmation of a suspected infection or contamination before notification. Consult the PHE Notifiable Diseases poster for further information.

Send the form to the proper officer within 3 days, or notify them verbally within 24 hours if the case is urgent by phone, letter, encrypted email or secure fax machine.

If you need help, contact your local HPT:

Contact details:

PHE West Midlands East Health Protection Team,
5 St Philip’s Place,
Birmingham,
B3 2PW

Referral by email from an NHS.NET email address only: PHE.wme@nhs.net

Phone: 0344 225 3560 option 2

Out of hours for health professionals only: please phone 01384 679 031

List of notifiable diseases

Diseases notifiable to local authority proper officers under the Health Protection (Notification) Regulations 2010:

• Acute encephalitis
• Acute infectious hepatitis
• Acute meningitis
• Acute poliomyelitis
• 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
• Legionnaires’ disease
• Leprosy
• Malaria
• Measles
• Meningococcal septicaemia
• Mumps
• Plague
• Rabies
• Rubella
• Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)
• Scarlet fever
• Smallpox
• Tetanus
• Tuberculosis
• Typhus
• Viral haemorrhagic fever (VHF)
• Whooping cough
• Yellow fever

Report other diseases that may present significant risk to human health under the category ‘other significant disease’.

Laboratories: report notifiable organisms (causative agents)

All laboratories in England performing a primary diagnostic role must notify PHE on the confirmation of a notifiable organism.

Read the guidance for diagnostic laboratories on reporting causative agents to PHE .

List of notifiable organisms (causative agents)

Causative agents notifiable to PHE under the Health Protection (Notification) Regulations 2010:

• Bacillus anthracis
• Bacillus cereus (only if associated with food poisoning)
• Bordetella pertussis
• Borrelia spp
• Brucella spp
• Burkholderia mallei
• Burkholderia pseudomallei
• Campylobacter spp
• Chikungunya virus
• Chlamydophila psittaci
• Clostridium botulinum
• Clostridium perfringens (only if associated with food poisoning)
• Clostridium tetani
• Corynebacterium diphtheriae
• Corynebacterium ulcerans
• Coxiella burnetii
• Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever virus
• Cryptosporidium spp
• Dengue virus
• Ebola virus
• Entamoeba histolytica
• Francisella tularensis
• Giardia lamblia
• Guanarito virus
• Haemophilus influenzae (invasive)
• Hanta virus
• Hepatitis A, B, C, delta, and E viruses
• Influenza virus
• Junin virus
• Kyasanur Forest disease virus
• Lassa virus
• Legionella spp
• Leptospira interrogans
• Listeria monocytogenes
• Machupo virus
• Marburg virus
• Measles virus
• Mumps virus
• Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex
• Neisseria meningitidis
• Omsk haemorrhagic fever virus
• Plasmodium falciparum, vivax, ovale, malariae, knowlesi
• Polio virus (wild or vaccine types)
• Rabies virus (classical rabies and rabies-related lyssaviruses)
• Rickettsia spp
• Rift Valley fever virus
• Rubella virus
• Sabia virus
• Salmonella spp
• SARS coronavirus
• Shigella spp
• Streptococcus pneumoniae (invasive)
• Streptococcus pyogenes (invasive)
• Varicella zoster virus
• Variola virus
• Verocytotoxigenic Escherichia coli (including E.coli O157)
• Vibrio cholerae
• West Nile Virus
• Yellow fever virus
• Yersinia pestis