Communicable Diseases
Notifications of certain communicable diseases and conditions from doctors, laboratories, hospitals, schools and child care centres are actively followed up with clinicians and clients to reduce the risk of these diseases within the Hunter New England area.
HNEPH Bulletin
The Bulletin is published and distributed electronically across the region on a bi-monthly basis. It gives topical information on communicable diseases and management and treatment. General Practitioners (GPs) receive their information via Divisional eBulletins and Newsletters. If you are not a GP and want to receive your electronic reminder of its publication, please provide your email address to: Reception.wallsend@hnehealth.nsw.gov.au
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HNEPH's Work in this Area
The Public Health Act 1991 specifies certain conditions are to be notified to Public Health Units. HNEPH public health response is to assist in preventing, protecting and controlling diseases in HNE as directed by NSW Health. Each case is entered into the NSW Health Notifiable Diseases Database. Privacy is protected under the Public Health Act 1991, which:
- Allows for the collection of information about notifiable diseases
- Requires notifiers to forward certain information to Public Health Units without necessarily seeking patient consent. However, it is recommended that a patient be so informed.
- Prevents Public Health Units from releasing information that might indentify individuals to anyone in the follow up of cases. Some information may be released by a Court Order.
Updates of Notifiable Diseases are published monthly in the Notifiable Diseases Tables and show the:
- Number of cases in HNE notified by disease for the stated month
- Total number of cases in HNE notified by disease for the current year
- Number of cases in HNE notified for the previous 4 years for the same period up to the month stated, called Year-to-Date (YTD)
- Total number of cases of notifiable conditions in NSW for YTD and the previous year
The numbers in the table do not represent all notifiable diseases in the community, as not all diseases are detected and so are not reported. Diseases are different in nature and can occur at different times of the year, explaining variations in the numbers. Retrospective updating of data occurs with late notifications.