Notification of Infectious Disease (NOID) Yorkshire and Humber (Y&H)

Reporting Notifiable Diseases in Yorkshire & Humber

Report a notifiable disease to the Y&H HPT using the new online service or ring 0300 3030234 for URGENT cases.

The Y&H HPT is piloting a new service for reporting notifiable diseases. The new service follows GOV.UK design standards and improves the overall reporting process. It includes multiple opportunities to give feedback and inform the future of the service.

Please send any questions about the new service to yorkshirehumberhpt@ukhsa.gov.uk.

Schedule 1 Diseases - URGENT

Please report a suspected case of any of the following urgent diseases by telephone within 24 hours. Call the Y&H HPT on 0300 3030234. You must also send a written notification to the Y&H HPT within 3 days using the online notification form

  • Acute meningitis*
  • Acute poliomyelitis*
  • Acute infectious hepatitis*
  • Anthrax*
  • Botulism*
  • Cholera*
  • Diphtheria*
  • Enteric fever (typhoid or paratyphoid fever)*
  • Haemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS)*
  • Infectious bloody diarrhoea
  • Invasive group A streptococcal disease*
  • Legionnaires’ Disease*
  • Meningococcal septicaemia*
  • Measles*
  • Mpox
  • Plague
  • Rabies*
  • SARs*
  • Smallpox*
  • Viral haemorrhagic fever (VHF)*

PLEASE REMEMBER: this is not an exhaustive list and the general ‘all hazards’ principle is to notify all cases where there may be a risk to other people as part of outbreaks or from other exposures such as carbon monoxide poisoning.

Schedule 1 Diseases (not urgent)   

Report a suspected case of any of the following diseases to the Y&H HPT within 3 days using the online notification form.

  • Acute encephalitis
  • Brucellosis
  • COVID-19
  • Food poisoning
  • Leprosy
  • Malaria
  • Mumps
  • Rubella
  • Scarlet fever
  • Tetanus
  • Tuberculosis
  • Typhus
  • Whooping cough
  • Yellow fever

Who should notify?

Registered medical practitioners (RMPs) have a statutory duty to notify the ‘proper officer’ at their local health protection team (HPT) of suspected (they do not need to be laboratory confirmed) cases of certain infectious diseases.  For more detail on reporting responsibilities of RMPs, see page 14 of Health Protection Legislation (England) Guidance 2010.

All RMPs must pass the notification to UKHSA via their local health protection team within 3 days of becoming aware of the case, or within 24 hours for urgent cases. 

If you think your patient may live outside of Yorkshire and Humber and you need help finding your local HPT use the postcode lookup.

What to notify?

The RMP should notify any infection or chemical contamination which could present significant harm to human health. For a list of notifiable diseases click (HPT Infectious Diseases). The risk may often be to other people and notification may prevent other people becoming unwell. 

RMPs attending a patient must notify the local authority in which the patient resides when they have “reasonable grounds for suspecting” that the patient:

  • has a Notifiable disease as listed in Schedule 1 (see here) of the Notification Regulations; or
  • has an infection not included in Schedule 1 which in the view of the RMP presents, or could present, significant harm to human health e.g. emerging or new infections; or 
  • is contaminated, such as with chemicals or radiation, in a manner which, in the view of the RMP presents, or could present, significant harm to human health; or
  • has died with, but not necessarily because of, a Notifiable disease, or other infectious disease or contamination that presents, or could present, or that presented or could have presented significant harm to human health.

When and how to notify?

To check if a notification is urgent, click here.

All URGENT cases should be reported, by PHONE, within 24 hours as there is often a CRITICAL WINDOW OF TIME within which effective public health control measures can be implemented. If incidents occur late at night or in the early hours of the morning, please consider if notification can wait until the following morning. All phone notifications should be followed up by a written or online notification using report a notifiable disease within 3 days.  ROUTINE cases should be notified in writing or online using report a notifiable disease within 3 days. 

 

NOTE: NOTIFICATION SHOULD BE MADE ON THE BASIS OF CLINICAL SUSPICION – DO NOT WAIT FOR LAB CONFIRMATION.

What happens when you make a notification?

Depending on the infectious disease suspected or confirmed, public health advice may include self-isolation, exclusion from school or the workplace, further testing (for certain infectious diseases Y&H HPT may provide self-administered salivary swab tests to patients, or antibiotic prophylaxis or vaccination of family members or other contacts.

Laboratories: report notifiable organisms (causative agents)

All laboratories in England must notify UKHSA on the confirmation of a notifiable disease.

Read the guidance for diagnostic laboratories on Reporting to UKHSA: a guide for diagnostic laboratories (publishing service.gov.uk)