Reportable diseases

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Legionnaires' disease organism, legionella

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.

Notifiable diseases

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

Haemophilus 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