Information For | Pārongo Health Professionals Notifiable Diseases and Hazardous Substance Injuries

Notifiable Diseases and Hazardous Substance Injuries

Health practitioners are legally required to report to the Medical Officer of Health any cases of:

 

For Bay of Plenty and Lakes districts health practitioners, please follow the process below to notify Toi Te Ora Public Health / the local Medical Officer of Health.

Notifying Toi Te Ora Public Health / Medical Officer of Health

All health practitioners are required to notify suspected or confirmed cases of notifiable diseases.

Check if the disease requires urgent or non-urgent notification (see the tables below).

 

Urgent disease notifications:

  • Please notify on clinical suspicion.
  • During working hours, phone Toi Te Ora Public Health on 0800 221 555
  • After hours all urgent notifications must be phoned to the on-call Medical Officer of Health via the hospital switchboard
  • Overnight notifications can be made in exceptional circumstances if you think immediate public health action or intervention is required.

 

Non-urgent disease notifications:

Complete the notification form via Best Practice e-referral OR email the notification form to CD.Admin@bopdhb.govt.nz.
 

Make sure you have relevant case details available when calling, including:

  • Symptoms and signs of the illness
  • Results of diagnostic tests if relevant
  • Occupation, and place of work, school, or preschool
  • Date of illness onset
  • If known, contacts of an infectious case – especially vulnerable people
  • Vaccination status of the index case if relevant
  • If known, suspected source of infection (e.g. functions attended, contact with another case).
  • Recent countries visited and date of arrival in New Zealand if relevant
  • Whether the patient has been informed that they have, or may have, a notifiable disease

Urgent notification

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Phone 0800 221 555 during office hours OR call the on-call Medical Officer of Health via the hospital switchboard after hours (and overnight if you think immediate public health action or intervention is required).

Anthrax

Neisseria meningitidis invasive disease (meningococcal disease)

Avian influenza (highly pathogenic)

Plague

Botulism

Poisoning arising from chemical contamination of the environment, including from algal blooms

Cholera

Poliomyelitis

Cronobacter species

Rabies and other lyssaviruses

Diphtheria

SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome)

Haemophilus influenzae B invasive disease

Tetanus

Hepatitis A

Toxic shellfish poisoning

Hepatitis B (acute illness only)

Typhoid and paratyphoid

Measles

Vero-toxin or Shiga-like toxin producing Escherichia coli

Meningoencephalitis - primary amoebic

Viral haemorrhagic fevers e.g. Ebola

MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome)

Outbreak of any disease¹

Mpox (Monkeypox)

  

¹ An outbreak is an increase in the occurrence of a disease; usually two or more linked cases.

Non-urgent notification

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Complete the notification form via Best Practice e-referral OR email the notification form to CD.Admin@bopdhb.govt.nz. Call the on-call Medical Officer of Health if there are any unusual circumstances that require discussion such as: community concern, media interest or increased public risk.

Acute gastroenteritis²

Listeriosis

Arboviral diseases (e.g. Dengue, Zika)³

Malaria

Brucellosis

Mumps

Campylobacteriosis

Non-seasonal influenza

COVID-19

Pertussis

Creutzfeldt Jakob disease (and other spongiform encephalopathies)

Q fever

Cysticercosis

Rheumatic fever

Giardiasis

Rickettsial diseases

Hepatitis C (acute illness only)

Rubella

Hepatitis (viral) - not otherwise specified (acute illness only)

Salmonellosis

Hazardous Substance injuries*

Shigellosis

Hydatid disease

Taeniasis

Invasive pneumococcal disease

Trichinosis

Lead absorption >/= 0.24 micromol/L

Tuberculosis (all forms)

Legionellosis

Yellow fever

Leprosy

Yersiniosis

Leptospirosis

 

  • ² Not all cases of acute gastroenteritis are notifiable or urgent. Urgent notification is required if: You suspect an outbreak, a case is at high risk of infecting others e.g. a food handler who will not stand down from work duties or a person has suspected or confirmed chemical or toxic food poisoning.

  • ³ Notify arbovirus infections urgently if there is suspicion that it has been locally acquired.

  • * Hazardous substances are defined under the HSNO Act as anything that has one or more of the following properties: explosiveness, flammability, a capacity to oxidise, corrosiveness, toxicity (including chronic toxicity), ecotoxicity, with or without bioaccumulation; OR on contact with air or water generates a substance with any 1 or more of the properties above. This includes injuries from chemical burns, cleaning products or fireworks. Both intentional and unintentional injuries should be reported.

 

Section C diseases (HIV/AIDS, gonorrhoea, syphilis)

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Use the notification form on the ESR website for the following sexually transmitted infections.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS)

HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus)

Gonorrhoea

Syphilis

Congenital syphilis

Notification allows public health services to collect, analyse and act on information to reduce the risk of disease in the public. Notifications allow us to:

  • Contact trace people to provide advice, prophylaxis, immunisation, isolation or quarantine
  • Identify environmental health issues e.g. contaminated drinking water
  • Identify disease sources e.g. foodborne illness
  • Detect and manage outbreaks
  • Monitor immunisation efficacy
  • Provide information to advocate for improved public health at a local or national level 
Updated 08 Dec, 2022