The agency has expanded the list of notifiable diseases and pathogens that registered medical professionals and diagnostic laboratories in England must report.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has expanded the list of notifiable diseases and pathogens that registered medical professionals and diagnostic laboratories in England must report.
The updated health protection notification regulations requirements, come into effect from next month. Medical professionals will now be required to report eight additional conditions, including Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) and zoonotic influenza strains.
Likewise, laboratories processing human samples in England must report ten new causative agents.
“These expanded reporting requirements will strengthen our ability to detect and respond to infectious disease outbreaks quickly and effectively,” said William Welfare, UKHSA director of health protection operations.
Quick response
UKHSA recently introduced an electronic NOIDs system, which allows medical professionals to submit notifications online. This digital system is faster than the old paper-based method and, the UKHSA says, will help it respond more quickly to health threats and reduce the burden of reporting for healthcare professionals.
Aside from existing infections, registered medical professionals will be required to report suspected cases of: Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS); influenza of zoonotic origin; chickenpox (varicella); congenital syphilis; neonatal herpes; acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) or acute flaccid myelitis (AFM); disseminated gonococcal infection (DGI); and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD).
Diagnostic laboratories testing human samples in England will also be required to report an additional ten pathogens, including: Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV); non-human influenza A subtypes; norovirus; echinococcus spp; tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV); toxoplasma (congenital toxoplasmosis); trichinella spp; yersinia spp; respiratory syncytial virus (RSV); and candidozyma auris.
