Notifiable and communicable diseases

Medical officers of health and health protection officers are responsible for receiving, investigating and responding to notifiable diseases and outbreaks in the community.

Our aim is to reduce future occurrences of infectious disease.

Notifiable diseases include:

• enteric (intestinal or gut) diseases such as salmonella or campylobacter
• vaccine preventable diseases such as measles or mumps
• less common diseases such as meningitis, tuberculosis or legionellosis.

We receive notification from laboratories, health practitioners, or members of the public.

In response to a notification we may:

• offer disease and infection control advice
• arrange isolation from work, early childhood education, school etc.
• organise clearance sampling for cases (people with the disease) or their close contacts.

We also investigate and respond to large local or national outbreaks or public health emergencies, for example pandemic influenza.

Monthly surveillance reports show current year-to-date rates for each notifiable disease in the Waikato, and month comparisons with the same month of the previous year. These are published in our monthly Public Health Bulletin .

Waikato DHB participates in national, regional and local programmes to prevent and respond to communicable and infectious diseases.

In our health district, rheumatic fever, pertussis (whooping cough), measles, mumps and rubella are priorities for prevention and early detection. 

For health professions

• Video scenarios for immunisers on how to have a conversation with someone who is needle-phobic or unsure about immunisation/vaccination.