Reportable infectious diseases
There are dozens of diseases that must legally be reported to Medway Council.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has a list of these diseases. These are known as notifiable diseases, and should be reported directly to UKHSA.
Our Food and Safety team is responsible for investigating the source and controlling the spread of diseases in partnership with UKHSA.
Check the list of notifiable diseases on GOV.UK.
Report a notifiable infectious disease
You can report any notifiable diseases to the UKHSA online.
To make a report online, you must be:
- a registered medical practitioner
- acting on behalf of a registered medical practitioner.
Report a notifiable disease to UKHSA.
If you're suffering from an infectious disease
Contact your GP if you think you have a notifiable infectious disease.
If a notifiable disease is confirmed, the results will be sent to UKHSA and certain cases will be passed to the Food and Safety team for investigation.
Food-handling environments
People working in food-handling environments should always report any food-poisoning illness to their employers.
In some cases, such as those working with the following risk groups, they may be asked not to return to work until they have recovered:
- children aged less than 5 who attend nurseries and playgroups
- people with disabilities or special needs
- health care workers who have direct contact with patients or their food.
For general gastrointestinal infections (without a confirmed diagnosis), food handlers should not work with food until at least 48 hours after their symptoms have stopped.
Cooling towers
All properties where cooling towers and evaporative condensers are located must register with the council.
The purpose of this is to identify areas that could give rise to spread of infectious diseases (for example, Legionnaires' disease) and to make sure that preventative measures are taken to get rid of the risk of infection.
You can notify us of any cooling towers or evaporative condensers by using the form on GOV.UK.
In the form, you'll need to tell us:
- where the notifiable plant is located
- the person in control of the premises
- the number of devices at the premises
- their approximate location.
Notify us of any cooling towers or evaporative condensers on your premises on GOV.UK.