Reportable Disease Desk Reference

In the United States, requirements for reporting diseases are mandated by state laws or regulations, and the list of reportable diseases in each state varies. The Kentucky Disease Surveillance Administrative Regulations 902 KAR 2:020 require reporting of communicable disease, unusual disease outbreaks and clusters of diseases to the local health departments and the Kentucky Department for Public Health. Additionally, state health departments report cases of selected diseases to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Notifiable Disease Surveillance System (NNDSS), on a weekly basis. These data are published weekly in the Morbidity Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).  An updated final report is published annually in the Summary of Notifiable Diseases.

The purpose of this manual is to provide a comprehensive resource document to assist local health departments and other health care providers in clarifying their responsibilities for disease reporting, epidemiologic surveillance and outbreak investigations. The manual should answer most of the procedural questions related to these activities. Questions beyond the scope of the desk reference should be directed to the attention of the Local Health Department, Regional Epidemiologist, State Epidemiologist or the Surveillance and Health Data Branch staff.

Reportable Disease Desk Reference (RDDR)

Contact information

Division of Laboratory Services