The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has expanded the list of notifiable diseases and pathogens that registered medical professionals and diagnostic laboratories in England must report.

The updated Health Protection Notification Regulations (HPNR) requirements, which come into effect from 6 April 2025, will strengthen local and national surveillance and improve outbreak response capabilities for infectious diseases.

Medical professionals will now be required to report 8 additional conditions, including Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) and zoonotic influenza strains. Likewise, laboratories processing human samples in England must report ten new causative agents.

These changes are the result of a public consultation and assessment conducted jointly by UKHSA and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) to enhance surveillance capabilities for current and emerging infectious diseases.

Aside from existing infections, registered medical professionals will be required to report suspected cases of:

• Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS)
• Influenza of zoonotic origin
• Chickenpox (varicella)
• Congenital syphilis
• Neonatal herpes
• Acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) or acute flaccid myelitis (AFM)
• Disseminated gonococcal infection (DGI)
• Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD)

Diagnostic laboratories testing human samples in England will also be required to report an additional 10 pathogens, including:

• Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV)
• Non-human influenza A subtypes
• Norovirus
• Echinococcus spp
• Tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV)
• Toxoplasma (congenital toxoplasmosis)
• Trichinella spp
• Yersinia spp
• Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)
• Candidozyma auris

Dr William Welfare, UKHSA Director of Health Protection Operations said:

These expanded reporting requirements will strengthen our ability to detect and respond to infectious disease outbreaks quickly and effectively. Robust disease surveillance is vital for effective public health response and the data gathered through this system is crucial for developing and implementing timely public health interventions and protecting communities across England.

When registered medical practitioners report certain diseases, UKHSA’s Health Protection Teams will take action. This might include giving antibiotics to people who’ve been in contact with patients, offering vaccines, or advising people to self-isolate. For other diseases, the reports help UKHSA track how illnesses spread and how effective interventions are.

UKHSA recently introduced an electronic NOIDs system, allowing medical professionals to submit notifications online. This digital system is faster than the old paper-based method, helping UKHSA respond more quickly to health threats and reducing the burden of reporting for healthcare professionals.

All shared information is confidential and protected under the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). UKHSA only uses this information to track and prevent the spread of diseases.