Sexual Health | Public health | Notification and Voluntary Reporting in Sexual Health

Notification and voluntary reporting in sexual health
Session overview
Description
This session will introduce you to the regulations for the notification and control of communicable disease in the UK; the role of the health protection services; the doctor's duty to report notifiable diseases; and what this means in practice for the genitourinary medicine clinic and other sexual health services.

Learning objectives
By the end of this session you will be able to:

• state the legal framework for the notification and control of communicable diseases and other hazards within the UK
• recognise the role of health protection services in the control of communicable disease and other hazards in the UK
• recall information and guidance on the reporting of communicable diseases and other hazards
• identify and report communicable diseases in accordance with legislation and good practice from the genitourinary medicine or sexual health clinic setting
   

Doctors in the UK will be familiar with their legal duty to report 'notifiable diseases' from their training as medical students. However, this can sit uneasily with the need to protect the confidentiality of patients attending genitourinary medicine (GUM) clinics.

Public health legislation was modernised in the UK in 2010 with the Health Protection Regulations in each of the UK nations, to bring it into line with the International Health Regulations published by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2005 [1](read details regarding the reference). These regulations aim to enable actions to prevent the international spread of infectious diseases and contamination. Further structural changes have occurred in the UK since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This session aims to update your knowledge of notifiable diseases, explore and highlight the regulations as they apply to healthcare professionals working in the countries of the UK, with particular emphasis on their application in the sexual health setting. It also aims to highlight the role of public health professionals and explain the vital role they provide in surveillance and outbreak management.