A notifiable disease is any disease that is required by law to be reported to government authorities. The collation of information allows the authorities to monitor the disease, and provides early warning of possible outbreaks. In the case of livestock diseases, there may also be the legal requirement to destroy the infected livestock upon notification. Many governments have enacted regulations for reporting of both human and animal diseases.
Global
Human
The World Health Organization's International Health Regulations 1969 require disease reporting to the organization in order to help with its global surveillance and advisory role. The current regulations are rather limited with a focus on reporting of three main diseases: cholera, yellow fever and plague. The revised International Health Regulations 2005 broadens this scope and is no longer limited to the notification of specific diseases. Whilst it does identify a number of specific diseases, it also defines a limited set of criteria to assist in deciding whether an event is notifiable to WHO. WHO states that "Notification is now based on the identification within a State Party’s territory of an "event that may constitute a public health emergency of international concern". This non-disease specific definition of notifiable events expands the scope of the IHR to include any novel or evolving risk to international public health, taking into account the context in which the event occurs. Such notifiable events can extend beyond communicable diseases and arise from any origin or source. This broad notification requirement aims at detecting, early on, all public health events that could have serious and international consequences, and preventing or containing them at source through an adapted response before they spread across borders."
Animal
The OIE monitors specific animal diseases on a global scale.
Australia
Human
The National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System was established in 1990. Notifications are made to the States or Territory health authority and computerised, de-identified records are then supplied to the Department of Health and Ageing for collation, analysis and . The are available online.
:pt:Notificação compulsória|List of national notifiable diseases
Canada
Human
France
Human
The first policies of mandatory notifiable disease originated a long time ago in France, while exact times are unclear we know that at the end of the 18th century Plague was a highly enforced notifiable disease. of notifiable diseases is written in the ' and ', it contains 33 diseases : 31 infectious ones and 2 non-infectious disease directly linked to the environment. Notifications of both the disease and the distribution of specific medicine are made to a regional desk governmental agency called Agence régionale de santé by :
Physician and Biologists, both in public or in private workplaces,
Physician controllers and Administratives civil-servant from Directions départementales des affaires sanitaires et sociales,
Epidemiologists from the Institut de veille sanitaire,''
Drugs sellers.
Anonymous records are then used by the government health-insurance system. Ill people must cure them and in many case are put in quarantine.
Notification is regulated under the Health Act 1956, except fortuberculosis which is regulated under the Tuberculosis Act 1948. All diseases
United Kingdom
Human
Requirement for the notification of infectious diseases originated near the end of the 19th century. The list started with a few select diseases and has since grown to 31. Currently disease notification for humans in the UK is regulated under the Public Health Act 1984 and Public Health Regulations 1988. The governing body is Public Health England List of Notifiable Diseases can be found here .
Children
There are also requirements for notification specific to children in the National standards for under 8s day care and childminding that state:
Animal
In the UK notification of diseases in animals is regulated by the Animal Health Act 1981, as well as the Specified Diseases Order 1992 and Specified Diseases Order 1996 . The act states that a police constable should be notified, however in practice a Defra divisional veterinary manager is notified and Defra will investigate.
