Communicable Diseases

Communicable diseases are those diseases that can be transmitted from one person to another, or from animals or insects to humans. The Public Health Act 2010 requires that certain medical conditions be notified to the relevant NSW public health unit.

The majority of notifiable diseases and conditions that require reporting are communicable diseases. A number of other medical conditions are also required to be notified under the Public Health Act 2010. See Schedule 1 Scheduled medical conditions and Schedule 2 Notifiable diseases for the full list of notifiable conditions.

Here are different requirements for infectious disease notifications from:

• medical practitioners and hospital chief executives
• pathology laboratories
• primary and secondary schools and child care centres.

Our communicable diseases team follows up notifications as per NSW Ministry of Health control guidelines.
More information on various communicable diseases can be found at this link: Infectious diseases fact sheets (nsw.gov.au)

Outbreak management advice for residential aged care facilities is available at this link: Advice to residential aged care facilities (RACFs) - COVID-19 (Coronavirus) (nsw.gov.au)

Information relevant to childcare centres can be accessed at Staying healthy guidelines | NHMRC
Public Health Alerts are published at this link: Alerts (nsw.gov.au)