Reporting of Communicable Diseases and Suspected Outbreaks to the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH)
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General Guidelines
For immediate reporting of any suspected or confirmed illness caused by a potential biological threat agent (e.g., anthrax, smallpox, tularemia or plague) or other disease of urgent public health concern (e.g., avian influenza or SARS), please call the following numbers and ask to speak to the DOHMH Doctor on Call:
Business Hours (Monday through Friday 9 AM to 5 PM): Call the Bureau of Communicable Disease at 1-347-396-2600
At all other times (Nights, weekends or holidays): Call the Poison Control Center at 1-212-POISONS (1-212-764-7667)
NOTE: Section 11.03(b) of the New York City Health Code require the immediate reporting by telephone of a suspected outbreak among 3 or more persons of any disease or condition (whether it is listed below or not), and of any unusual manifestation of disease in an individual.
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Reporting Communicable Diseases by DOHMH Program
All diseases highlighted should be reported immediately to the responsible Bureau by telephone. The other diseases can be reported on a paper Universal Reporting Form by mail or fax or via the electronic Universal Reporting Form.
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Bureau of Communicable Diseases
Telephone: 347-396-2600
Fax: 347-396-2632
Diseases reportable to the Bureau of Communicable Disease include:
- Amebiasis (1, 2)
- Anaplasmosis (Human Granulocytic)
- Anthrax
- Arboviral infections, acute
- Babesiosis
- Botulism
- Brucellosis (3)
- Campylobacteriosis (1, 2, 3)
- Cholera (3)
- Creutzfeld Jakob Disease
- Cryptosporidiosis (1, 2)
- Cyclosporiasis (1, 2)
- Dengue
- Ehrlichiosis (Human Monocytic)
- Encephalitis (4)
- Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Shiga toxin producing bacteria (1, 2, 3)
- Giardiasis (1, 2)
- Glanders (3)
- Haemophilus influenzae, invasive disease (1, 3)
- Hantavirus
- Hemolytic uremic syndrome
- Hepatitis A (1, 2, 7)
- Hepatitis B (5)
- Hepatitis C (7)
- Hepatitis D (7)
- Hepatitis E (7)
- Hepatitis, other suspected infectious
- Influenza, laboratory confirmed (6)
- Influenza, novel strain with pandemic potential (e.g., avian H5N1 strain)
- Influenza-related pediatric deaths
- Kawasaki disease
- Legionellosis (3)
- Leprosy (Hansen’s disease) (3)
- Leptospirosis (3)
- Listeriosis (3)
- Lyme Disease (3)
- Lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus
- Malaria
- Melioidosis (3)
- Meningitis, viral (aseptic) (4)
- Meningitis, bacterial
- Meningococcal disease, invasive (includes meningitis) (1, 3)
- Monkeypox
- Norovirus (6)
- Plague (3)
- Psittacosis (3)
- Q fever (3)
- Rabies and exposure to rabies
- Respiratory syncytial virus (6)
- Ricin
- Rickettsialpox (3)
- Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (3)
- Rotavirus (6)
- Salmonellosis (1, 2, 3)
- Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)
- Shigellosis (1, 2, 3)
- Smallpox
- Staphylococcal enterotoxin B
- Staphylococcus aureus, methicillin-resistant (3, 6)
- Staphylococcus aureus with reduced susceptibility to Vancomycin (SARSV)
- Streptococcus (Group A), invasive (3)
- Streptococcus (Group B), invasive (3)
- Streptococcus pneumoniae, invasive (3, 6)
- Toxic shock syndrome
- Trachoma
- Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (including Creutzfeld Jakob Disease)
- Trichinosis
- Tularemia (3)
- Typhoid fever (1, 2, 3)
- Vibrio species, non-cholera (including parahaemolyticus and vulnificus) (3)
- Viral hemorrhagic fever
- West Nile viral neuroinvasive disease (e.g., meningitis and encephalitis) and West Nile fever
- Yellow fever
- Yersiniosis (1, 2, 3)
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Bureau of HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control
Telephone: 212-442-3388
Events reportable by providers on the required New York State Provider Report Form (PRF):
Diagnoses of HIV infection
Diagnoses of HIV illness in a previously unreported individual (i.e., HIV illness not meeting the AIDS case definition)
Diagnoses of AIDS-defining conditions
Events reportable by laboratories
All positive Western blot test results
All viral load test results (detectable and undetectable)
All CD4 test results
All viral nucleotide sequence results
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Bureau of Immunizations
Telephone: 212-676-2288
Fax: 212-676-2300
Diseases reportable to the Bureau of Immunizations include:
- Diphtheria
- Measles
- Mumps (1)
- Pertussis (1)
- Poliomyelitis
- Rubella (including Congenital Rubella Syndrome) (1)
- Tetanus
- Vaccinia disease (adverse events associated with smallpox vaccination)
- Varicella (6)
- Hepatitis B in Pregnancy
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Bureau of Sexually Transmitted Diseases
Telephone: 212-788-4444
Fax: 212-788-4452
Diseases reportable to the Bureau of Sexually Transmitted Diseases include:
- Chancroid
- Chlamydia trachomatis
- Gonorrhea (3 )
- Granuloma inguinale (Donovanosis)
- Herpes, Neonatal (Herpes simplex in infants aged 60 days or less with or without lab confirmation)
- Lymphogranuloma venereum
- Syphilis, including congenital syphilis
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Bureau of Tuberculosis Control
Telephone: 212-788-4162
Fax: 212-788-4179
Please report any suspected or confirmed cases of tuberculosis disease, including:
- Positive AFB smears
- Positive nucleic acid amplification tests
- Positive M. TB cultures
- Pathology findings consistent with TB
- Start of TB treatment with 2 or more anti-TB drugs
- Positive test for TB infection (either a Mantoux test or an FDA approved blood test) in children younger than 5 years
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Animal Disease Reporting
Telephone: 212-788-9830
Fax: 212-788-4268
See Animal Disease Reporting for more information.
Diseases affecting animals that are reportable to the Bureau of Communicable Disease include:
- Report upon suspicion: anthrax, brucellosis, glanders, plague, Q fever, tularemia, monkeypox and rabies.
- Report upon diagnosis: psittacosis, leptospirosis, and arboviral encephalitides.
- Report "an outbreak of any disease or condition in birds or animals, of known or unknown etiology, which may pose a danger to public health."
Reports shall be made by a veterinarian; by a person in charge of an animal hospital, rehabilitation facility, animal shelter, other institution providing animal care or treatment, zoological park, or other facility responsible for animal care and veterinary diagnostic laboratories.
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Footnotes
- Report immediately by telephone a suspected case in a day care, health care, correctional, or homeless facility.
- Report immediately by telephone a suspected case in a food handler.
- Effective February 27, 2008, laboratories should include antibiotic susceptibility testing results, if performed, for all bacterial diseases on the notifiable disease list.
- During peak mosquito season, from July 1 through October 31, please consider and test for West Nile virus. The best screening test is IgM ELISA performed on serum or CSF. This test is available at commercial laboratories. Please see the current quidelines for West Nile virus testing and for reporting cases of viral encephalitis and meningitis.
- To report Hepatitis B in pregnancy to the Bureau of Immunization, go to Hepatitis B/Perinatal Hepatitis B webpage.
- Laboratory-confirmed influenza, norovirus, Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), rotavirus, invasive Streptococcus pneumoniae, and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus are only reportable by laboratories. For these diseases, individual cases do not need to be reported by healthcare providers or facilities, with the exception of suspected novel influenza strains and influenza deaths in children less than 18 years old.
- See our Hepatitis A, B, and C Serology Cheat Sheet (PDF)
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