Communicable Disease Reporting

Communicable diseases are reported first to the County Health Departments who go on to report to the State. Reporting through the county Health Department is necessary because they typically conduct thorough contact investigations. Traditionally, communicable diseases have been reported through the use of the "North Carolina Communicable Disease Report Card." However, the use of these cards is being phased out by the State, and they are changing to a fully electronic reporting system. The North Carolina Communicable Disease website is: http://www.epi.state.nc.us/epi/gcdc.html, and here, PDF versions of reporting are available for a variety of communicable diseases.

It is expected that laboratories will be responsible for reporting communicable diseases, but the new online forms require a fair amount of clinical background, and therefore, we should be prepared to assist our lab if further information is needed.

The current CDC list of Nationally Notifiable Infectious Diseases can be found at this website:
http://www.cdc.gov/ncphi/disss/nndss/PHS/infdis2008.htm.


Arlene Sena-Soberano, MD, MPH, is the Medical Director of the Durham County Health Department, and is a key connection between UNC and the Health Department. She can be contacted with further questions regarding communicable disease reporting, at email address arlene_soberano@med.unc.edu.


Yvonne Carter, MD