Notifiable diseases in the UK: list, reporting duties and public health response
RezzyThis is a high-yield topic for the UKMLA AKT! As a doctor in the UK, you have a statutory duty (a legal requirement) to notify the "Proper Officer" at your local Health Protection Team (HPT) if you suspect a patient has a notifiable disease.
The most important thing to remember for exams and practice is that you notify on clinical suspicion. You do ==not== wait for laboratory confirmation before reporting.
Reporting Duties: The "Who, When, and How"
- Who: The Registered Medical Practitioner (RMP) who attends the patient.
- When:
- Urgent cases: Within 24 hours (usually by phone) if the case requires urgent public health action.
- Routine cases: Within 3 days in writing.
- How: Complete a notification form and send it to the Proper Officer at the local UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) centre.
I've put together a comprehensive list of the diseases you need to keep on your radar.
| Category | Notifiable Diseases (UK) |
|---|---|
| Respiratory / Systemic | Anthrax, Diphtheria, Invasive group A streptococcal disease, Legionnaires' disease, Measles, Meningococcal septicaemia, Mumps, Plague, Rubella, SARS, Smallpox, Tetanus, Tuberculosis, Whooping cough |
| Enteric / Foodborne | Acute infectious hepatitis, Botulism, Cholera, Food poisoning, Haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS), Paratyphoid fever, Shigellosis, Typhoid fever, Viral haemorrhagic fever (VHF) |
| Meningitis | Acute encephalitis, Acute poliomyelitis, Meningococcal meningitis, Other bacterial/viral meningitis |
| Other | Brucellosis, Leprosy, Leptospirosis, Malaria, Rabies, Relapsing fever, Scarlet fever, Yellow fever |
The public health response is all about breaking the chain of transmission. Once you notify the local Health Protection Team (HPT), they take over the epidemiological heavy lifting.
Public Health Response Actions
- Contact Tracing: Identifying and monitoring people who have been in close contact with the infected patient.
- Prophylaxis: Offering vaccinations or antibiotics to contacts (e.g., ciprofloxacin for meningococcal disease contacts).
- Environmental Investigation: For things like Legionnaires' disease or food poisoning, they'll check water systems or restaurants.
- Exclusion: Advising the patient to stay away from work or school until they are no longer infectious.
Here's a quick look at how the reporting process flows from the moment you see the patient.
I've pulled up some high-yield lessons and flashcards that focus on notifiable diseases and public health for the UKMLA. These will help you nail those tricky AKT questions about which diseases require urgent vs. routine notification!
📚 UKMLA Notifiable Diseases Lessons
🗂️ Notifiable Diseases Flashcards
Tap to study 12 flashcards in the Oncourse app
I've laid out the essentials for you! Just remember that for the AKT, they love to test the confidentiality aspect too—notifying the Proper Officer is a legal requirement, so it's one of the few times you can share patient info without their explicit consent (though you should still inform the patient that you're doing it).
If you want to test your knowledge on these, those flashcards are a great place to start! Let me know if you want to dive deeper into any specific disease on that list.
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