Obligation to report infectious diseases

Doctors, laboratories, and institutions such as care institutions, primary schools, and childcare in the Netherlands, must notify the Municipal Health Service (GGD) in their region if they discover or suspect certain infectious diseases.

Notifiable diseases

The infectious diseases (in Dutch) you must report include, but are not limited to:

• typhoid fever
• SARS
• polio
• tuberculosis
• rabies
• hepatitis A, B, and C
• measles
• mpox
• legionnaire’s disease
• Q fever

You must notify infectious disease as soon as possible to the infectious disease physician of your region's Municipal Health Service (GGD, in Dutch). How soon you must report, depends on the type of disease and the degree of risk to public health. Failing to report is a punishable offence. Medical confidentiality does not apply to this duty to report. As a physician, you must always notify, even if the laboratory already reported.

Reporting sick people in childcare facilities and care institutions

Do you have an organisation where vulnerable people stay for at least half a day, such as a childcare facility or a care institution? You must report an unusual number of sick people with gastrointestinal illnesses (vomiting and/or diarrhoea), jaundice, or skin disorders (in Dutch). This also applies to other serious conditions suspected to be contagious, such as meningitis. You must make the report within 1 working day to the infectious disease physician at the GGD in your region (in Dutch).

Measures to prevent spreading of infectious diseases

The mayor or chairman of the safety region may impose extra measures to prevent further spreading of a disease.

Possible measures include:

• compulsory isolation at home or in a hospital
• enforced quarantine
• prohibition of professional practice