For Health Care Providers

Communicable Disease Reporting

Why Report:

The primary objectives of disease surveillance are:

1. To determine the extent of morbidity within the community.
2. To evaluate risks of transmission.
3. To intervene rapidly when appropriate.

For surveillance to be effective, the reporting of communicable diseases must be timely. Delay or failure to report communicable diseases has contributed to serious consequences in the past. Reports by health care providers form the basis for monitoring communicable diseases. The information provided is crucial for interrupting transmission, recognizing and controlling outbreaks, following trends, and informing the medical community about local occurrence of communicable diseases. The detection and treatment of patients with tuberculosis, the identification of asymptomatic carriers of typhoid and gonorrhea, the immunization of persons exposed to vaccine preventable diseases, and alerting health providers about prevalent viral infections are just a few of the benefits derived by the entire community when reporting is timely and accurate. Failure to report can result in increased diseases in the community, increased costs for diagnosis and treatment, additional time lost from work or school, prolonged hospitalization, and possibly death.

Who Should Report:

State Law (California Code of Regulations, Title 17, Health and Safety Code, Section 2500 requires health care providers to report certain diseases and conditions of public health importance to Public Health Services. Many physicians are not aware of their responsibility to report certain communicable diseases to the health department. Laboratory reporting of a particular disease does not relieve the physician of this responsibility. Patient consent is NOT needed to report cases or suspect cases, or to supply additional information requested by Public Health.

How To Report:

Reports should be submitted by mail, telephone, or fax depending on the disease category. A standard form, known as the Confidential Morbidity Report (CMR) is available for reporting diseases and conditions. A separate report should be completed for each disease. Confidential Morbidity Reports can be obtained from Public Health Services or you can click here to download the document. Please complete all sections of the CMR. AIDS Case Reporting Forms may be obtained from the AIDS Surveillance Coordinator who is also available to assist in report completion. The confidentiality of patient information is always protected.

    Confidential Morbidity Report (385k) please mail confidential morbidity report to:

San Joaquin County Public Health Services (SJCPHS)
Morbidity Department
P.O. Box 2009
Stockton, CA 95201-2009

Telephone appropriate report to: (209) 468-3822

Fax appropriate report to: (209) 468-8222, Attention: Morbidity

HIV / AIDS

For HIV or AIDS case reporting forms or assistance:

SJCPHS
AIDS Surveillance Coordinator
P.O. Box 2009
Stockton, CA 95201-2009
Phone: (209) 468-3475

Note: Do not fax HIV or AIDS case reports. Phone or mail in sealed and taped envelope marked CONFIDENTIAL.