Review of Notifiable Diseases and Conditions: Discussion Document

A Review of Notifiable Diseases and Conditions: Discussion Document

Date of publication: April 2003

Note: Submissions have now closed. Submissions were due by 30 June 2003. View current consultation documents.

The Ministry of Health has developed this discussion paper as part of the Review of Notifiable Diseases and Conditions Schedules project to review and update the lists of notifiable diseases contained in the first and second schedules of the Health Act 1956. While this project relates to the schedules of the Health Act 1956, it will also contribute directly to the development of the Public Health Bill.

The purpose of the review is to:

ensure that the lists of notifiable diseases and conditions enable the collection of information on trends that is accurate, timely, relevant and accessible to end users
provide a core list of notifiable diseases and conditions that can be carried over into new public health legislation.

Following consultation, the Ministry of Health expects that it will be able to identify:

what would constitute an appropriate notification regime that is possible under current law
what a notification regime would look like and how it would function, assuming that changes are made to the current legislative regime over the next few years which would, for example, allow a greater ranger of notifers and conditions and allow for a greater range of people to be notified.

The discussion paper 'A Review of Notifiable Diseases and Conditions' is complementary to the discussion paper 'Public Health Legislation: promoting public health, preventing ill health and managing communicable diseases'.

It elaborates in more detail on section 4.4 'Notification of information: issues and options' of the Public Health Legislation document. It reviews and makes recommendations on the lists of notifiable diseases and conditions and the current notification system, and provides options for grouping diseases that could be used within the current legislative framework as well as under the proposed Public Health Bill.

The discussion paper identifies a number of diseases which require additional debate before recommendations to add or remove them from the notifiable disease schedules can be made.

Submissions closed 30 June 2003.

Document availability

(PDF, 494 kB)

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