Infektionskrankheiten; Meldung

For certain infectious diseases, the Infection Protection Act stipulates that illness, suspected illness and death must be reported. The detection of certain pathogens by doctors and laboratories is also mandatory.

In terms of infection protection, notifiable communicable diseases and notifiable evidence of pathogens are reported to the public health department. These are then forwarded by the public health department to the Bavarian State Office for Health and Food Safety (LGL) and from there to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI). The aim is to prevent communicable diseases in humans, detect infections at an early stage and prevent them from spreading.

The Infection Protection Act (IfSG) obliges doctors in medical practices, hospitals and laboratories, for example, to notify the health authorities. A distinction is made between named notifications and non-named notifications.

• Notifications by name: Doctors and medical diagnostic laboratories in particular, but also certain institutions and companies, are obliged to report the diseases and evidence of pathogens listed in the law or corresponding suspected cases to the locally responsible health authorities. The reports are mainly made electronically via DEMIS (German Electronic Reporting and Information System for Infection Protection). If electronic reporting is not yet possible, the reporting forms required for reporting are provided by the LGL.
  The report by doctors or laboratories is made by name, i.e. with the name of the person concerned and their contact details, so that the public health department can make contact, check the facts and, if necessary, take infection protection measures. The data is transmitted by the public health department to the LGL as the responsible state authority and from there to the RKI without passing on the name and contact details (pseudonymized).
• Non-named notifications: The pathogen detections mentioned in § 7 para. 3 IfSG, e.g. the AIDS pathogen HIV, are reported by the laboratory directly to the RKI without naming the person concerned (without mentioning their personal data). The RKI provides special laboratory reporting forms for this purpose.

Persons obliged to report must complete an electronic report or a report form and - depending on the disease - report it to the responsible health authority or the RKI.

The public health department forwards the pseudonymized data of the report to the LGL, which in turn forwards it to the RKI.

The deadlines are based on § 9 ff. of the Infection Protection Act.