Notifiable disease reporting.
How we notify NSW Health and other authorities when a child or staff member has a notifiable disease.
Procedure for Advising Health Authorities of Notifiable Disease at the Centre
Purpose
To ensure that the Centre meets the obligations in regard to Notification of Infectious Diseases under the Public Health Act 2010.
Public health unit support for education and care services
Public health units are valuable resources for education and care services. They can provide support and information about diseases that may occur in your service.
Public health staff can provide general advice and support about infectious diseases, infection control practices and public health issues. Contact your local public health unit with any questions.
Most importantly, public health staff can provide valuable advice, support and resources that can help manage cases or outbreaks of infectious diseases.
If there is a case of one of these diseases (see below) in your service, staff from public health units can help to explain to educators and other staff:
• symptoms to watch out for and what to do if children or staff develop those symptoms
• how to control further spread of the infection (for example, immunisation, exclusion, cleaning, and education such as written information for parents, carers and staff).
Additionally, some of these diseases can cause concern among parents and carers and sometimes interest from the media. If this occurs, your local public health unit can provide information and support.
Disease Outbreaks
Disease outbreaks are when there is a sudden increase in the number of cases of a disease in a specific region or area. The definition of ‘sudden increase’ depends on the disease and how many cases normally occur in a population. For some rare diseases, a single case can be considered an outbreak.
An outbreak can occur within the education and care service, in the local area or more widely.
If a disease outbreak occurs within your service, you may need to:
• be more stringent about exclusion periods and criteria
• make your cleaning practices more intense or more frequent
• consider closing the service for a short time to break the cycle of disease.
Contact your local public health unit for guidance if you suspect an outbreak or are experiencing an outbreak. If you are aware of outbreaks in your local area, contact your local public health unit for guidance. If an outbreak is occurring, your public health unit will often provide local information and fact sheets about specific diseases.
Procedure
All suspicions of infectious diseases should be reported first to the Director of the Centre.
The Director needs to advise families that a doctor’s diagnosis is needed.
The Director needs to notify the local Public Health Unit of one or more cases of the following infectious diseases or if a child or staff member has come into contact with a person who has one of the following diseases:
Diphtheria
Poliomyelitis
Measles
Rubella (German Measles)
Mumps
Tetanus
Pertussis (Whooping Cough)
Haemophilus influenzae type B (Hib)
Meningococcal Disease
Gastroenteritis (if 2 or more people are affected and you suspect an outbreak).
Centre Directors are also to seek advice from their local Public Health Unit when they suspect an infectious disease outbreak is affecting their centre, such as outbreaks (2 or more cases) of a gastrointestinal or respiratory illness.
Centre Directors should also refer to Staying Healthy - Preventing Infectious Diseases in Early Childhood Education and Care Services (latest edition).
The notification needs to be made within 24 hours of the diagnosis and can be made over the phone.
Hornsby Public Health Unit
(Northern Sydney LHD)
Hornsby Ku-ring-gai Hospital,
Palmerston Road Hornsby 2077
Phone: (02) 9485 6911
After hours
Phone: (02) 9477 9123
(Hornsby Hospital)
- ask for Public Health Officer on call
Once an infectious disease has been confirmed the Director must notify families through signs, notices and email and also check children's immunisation status if relevant and exclude children who are not immunised or whose immunisation status is not up to date. This only applies to infectious diseases that are preventable through immunisation.
If there is an outbreak of COVID in the service (5 or more cases within a 7-day period) or if the service is to be closed due to the impacts of COVID-19, the service will report this to the Department of Education and Communities through the NQAITS portal. If there is a positive case in the service, the service must ensure that a parent or an authorised emergency contact of each child being educated and cared for by the service is notified as soon as practicable. This is a requirement under the Education and Care Services National Regulations (Regulation 88(2)).
Source: NSW Health - www.health.nsw.gov.au
Public Health Act 2010
Staying Healthy - Preventing Infectious Diseases in Early Childhood Education and Care Services 6thEd.
Department of Education
Centre Support
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