Should SARS be made a notifiable disease?
The U.K. Health Protection Agency has published a discussion paper on making severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) a notifiable disease. The paper examines all the issues following the debate as to whether to either make the disease notifiable or subject to the current laws controlling infectious diseases. A notifiable disease is one that doctors are legally obliged to report to a “proper officer” of the local authority. Every week the proper officers are required to inform the HPA’s Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre (CDSC) of totals of cases. The HPA is inviting comment from both the public and health care professionals on the options set…
