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Notifiable Diseases (New Zealand)
Notifiable Diseases (Health Act 1956)
Under section 74 of the Health Act (1956) all doctors must inform the Medical Officer of Health of all notifiable diseases. For some notifiable diseases, such as meningitis, this is because rapid follow-up of contacts by the public health service is imperative. Any doctor who does not inform public health services of notifiable cases immediately, may be held responsible for any deaths which occur as a result of delaying prophylactic antibiotic treatment of contacts. Should such a tragedy occur, it would be very difficult to defend any charges of negligence, given that doctors who delay notifying public health services are clearly in breach of the Health Act.
Moreover, the Act specifies that the Medical Officer of Health should be notified on suspicion. This means doctors should not wait until laboratory results are available before notifying, unless the test carried out is simply to exclude a remote but serious possibility. Please note that laboratories in New Zealand are also required to notify, but this does not exempt clinical doctors from notifying immediately on suspicion.
In any case, if a positive result for a notifiable disease is received by a doctor they should notify the Medical Officer of Health even if the patient has been discharged. They must not assume the GP will follow up, even if the GP has been "copied in" to laboratory results.
IF IN DOUBT – NOTIFY
Locate and print the notification form - see HealthPathways, or ask the ward clerk, or search for “notifiable diseases” on the CDHB intranet. Complete the form and fax it to the Community & Public Health Division of CDHB (fax 379 6484).
Please note that under the Health Act, where an infectious notifiable disease is suspected in a patient, the Clinical Charge Nurse should also be informed, along with any precautions that should be taken by staff dealing with the patient.
Sexually Transmitted Infections (Venereal Diseases Regulations 1982)
Sexually transmitted infections are not notifiable to the Medical Officer of Health except when:
- A patient does not attend for follow-up treatment twice, or is overdue by more than a week for a single follow-up, or
- The patient has syphilis or gonorrhoea and the treating doctor is aware of the names and/or descriptions of contacts who require follow-up.
Diseases Notifiable in New Zealand to the Medical Officer of Health
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Diseases(1) Notifiable in New Zealand to the Medical Officer of Health
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- Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS)
- Acute gastroenteritis(2)
- Anthrax
- Arboviral diseases
- Brucellosis
- Campylobacteriosis
- Cholera
- Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and other spongiform encephalopathies
- Cronobacter species
- Cryptosporidiosis
- Cysticercosis
- Decompression sickness
- Diphtheria
- Giardiasis
- Haemophilus influenzae B
- Hepatitis A
- Hepatitis B
- Hepatitis C
- Hepatitis (viral) - not otherwise specified
- Hydatid disease
- Influenza - Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI)
- Influenza - Non-seasonal influenza (capable of being transmitted between human beings)
- Lead absorption equal to or in excess of 10 microgram/dL (0.48 micromol/L)(3)
- Legionellosis
- Leprosy
- Leptospirosis
- Listeriosis
- Malaria
- Measles
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- Meningoencephalitis - primary amoebic
- Mumps
- Neisseria meningitidis invasive disease
- Pertussis
- Plague
- Pneumococcal invasive disease
- Poisoning arising from chemical contamination of the environment
- Poliomyelitis
- Q fever
- Rabies and other lyssaviruses
- Rheumatic fever
- Rickettsial diseases
- Rubella
- Salmonellosis
- Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)
- Shigellosis
- Taeniasis
- Tetanus
- Trichinellosis
- Tuberculosis (all forms)
- Typhoid and paratyphoid fever
- Verotoxin-producing or Shiga toxin-producing E. coli
- Viral haemorrhagic fevers
- Yellow fever
- Yersiniosis
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- During times of increased incidence, practitioners may be requested to report (with informed consent) to their local Medical Officer of Health other communicable diseases not on this list.
- Not every case of acute gastroenteritis is necessarily notifiable - only those where there is a suspected common source or from a person in a high risk category (e.g., food handler, early childhood service worker, etc) or single cases of chemical, bacterial, or toxic food poisoning such as botulism, toxic shellfish poisoning (any type) and disease caused by verocytotoxic E.coli, Vibrio parahaemolyticus or Clostridium perfringens.
- Blood lead levels to be reported to the Medical Officer of Health (≥10 microgram/dL or 0.48 micromol/L) are for environmental exposure. Where occupational exposure is suspected, please notify OSH through the Notifiable Occupational Disease System (NODS).
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Topic Code: 1722