Communicable Disease Reporting
The Communicable Disease Program helps to stop the spread of disease in our community by tracking and investigating infectious diseases, providing guidance and monitoring to affected individuals, and providing information regarding the spread of disease to other Public Health programs.
Communicable Disease reports are created by Public Health’s epidemiology program and are designed to provide current and historical information about disease in our community. These reports are used by Public Health programs, healthcare providers, local governments, and community partners to help inform their decision-making process when it comes to improving health outcomes.
If you are a member of the public and are concerned you have a communicable disease, contact your doctor or a local hospital.
What is a communicable disease?
- Any disease that spreads from one person to another.
What are some ways that communicable diseases spread?
- Directly through physical contact with an infected person, such as through touch (staphylococcus), sexual intercourse (gonorrhea, HIV), fecal/oral transmission (hepatitis A), or large respiratory droplets from coughs and sneezes (influenza, TB)
- Contact with a contaminated surface or object (Norwalk virus), food (salmonella, E. coli), blood (HIV, hepatitis B), or water (cholera)
- Bites from insects or animals capable of transmitting the disease (mosquito- malaria and yellow fever; flea- plague)
- Breathing small respiratory droplets that travel through the air, such as tuberculosis or measles.
What do communicable disease reporting nurses do?
- Gather reports of diseases in Montgomery County
- Conduct interviews to determine common risk factors
- Educate exposed individuals and families
- Provide recommendations for treatment and isolation
- Determine the level of disease in the community
- Control and prevent the spread of communicable diseases
Who needs to report diseases to the local health department?
- Disease prevention and control is a cooperative effort involving health care providers and local and state health department personnel.
- The State of Ohio requires all labs, physicians, hospitals, and other health professionals to report suspected and confirmed cases of certain infectious diseases to the local health department.
- These reports protect the public’s health by quickly identifying outbreaks.
Which diseases must be reported to the local health department?
- Examples of some reportable illnesses include measles, whooping cough, and chickenpox. Also reportable are foodborne illnesses such as Salmonella and E. Coli. Know Your ABCs: A Quick Guide to Reportable Infectious Diseases in Ohio lists reportable diseases by Class (A, B, or C).
How quickly must diseases by reported to the local health department?
COMMUNICABLE DISEASE CHART – 2025
(Click here to Download the attached document for the Communicable Disease Chart, developed cooperatively between the Ohio Department of Health and the Ohio Department of Children and Youth.)All reportable diseases should be reported by healthcare professionals to the Communicable Disease Reporting Nurse by telephone or fax.
- To report a Class A Communicable disease please call (937)225-4508 (Monday - Friday 8:00am - 4:30pm) immediately.
- For after hours and weekend reports of Class A Communicable Diseases, please call (937)910-6049.
- To report a Class B or C Communicable disease
- Fax the completed Ohio Confidential Reportable Disease Form to the Communicable Disease department at (937)224-8853.
- To report Syphilis or HIV
- Please fax the competed Ohio Confidential Reportable Disease Form to the DIS department at (937) 496-7613, or call (937)496-7444.
- To report a case of Tuberculosis (TB)
- Providers who need to report an active case of TB can call the TB Outreach nurse, at (937) 496-6584 , or for more information, they may contact the TB Clinic Nurse line at (937) 496-6657.
- Resources
- Documents
- Monthly Reports
- Communicable Disease Annual Reports
