Notifiable diseases

Diseases you must report

You must report any suspected case of a notifiable disease.

Notifiable disease

Whether likely to be routine or urgent is noted after each disease entry.

• Acute encephalitis - Routine
• Acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) or Acute flaccid myelitis (AFM) - Urgent
• Acute infectious hepatitis (A/B/C) - Urgent
• Acute meningitis - Urgent
• Acute poliomyelitis - Urgent
• Anthrax - Urgent
• Botulism - Urgent
• Brucellosis - Routine. Urgent if acquired in UK.
• Chickenpox (varicella) - Routine
• Cholera - Urgent
• Congenital syphilis - Routine
• COVID-19 - Routine
• Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) - Routine
• Disseminated gonococcal infection (DGI) - Routine
• Diphtheria Urgent Enteric fever (typhoid or paratyphoid fever) - Urgent
• Food poisoning - Routine. Urgent if part of a cluster or outbreak
• Haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS) - Urgent
• Infectious bloody diarrhoea - Urgent
• Influenza of zoonotic origin - Urgent
• Invasive group A streptococcal disease - Urgent
• Legionnaires’ disease - Urgent
• Leprosy - Routine
• Malaria - Routine. Urgent if acquired in UK.
• Measles - Urgent
• Meningococcal septicaemia - Urgent
• Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) - Urgent
• Mpox (previously known as monkeypox) - Urgent
• Mumps - Routine
• Neonatal herpes - Routine
• Plague - Urgent
• Rabies - Urgent
• Rubella - Routine
• Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) - Urgent
• Scarlet fever - Routine
• Smallpox - Urgent
• Tetanus - Routine. Urgent if associated with injecting drug use.
• Tuberculosis - Routine. Urgent if healthcare worker, or suspected cluster or multi-drug resistant.
• Typhus - Routine
• Viral haemorrhagic fever (VHF) - Urgent
• Whooping cough - Urgent if diagnosed in acute phase. Routine in later diagnosis.
• Yellow fever - Routine. Urgent if acquired in UK.

Reference:

• (1) UK Health Security Agency (April 2025). Notifiable diseases and how to report them.