title: [Reporting communicable diseases, a choice and an obligation].
abstract: Surveillance means collecting data for action. Local, cantonal and federal actors are critical partners in disease control. There is evidence that the quality of notifications should continuously be improved. The retrieval of missing information increases the workload of the system of notification at all levels and slows down the response. By law, the diagnosing physician and the head of the laboratory are responsible for the transmission of data to the FOPH, while the cantonal health authority oversees their quality. The law on epidemics doesn't leave it up to physicians and laboratories whether to notify or not: notification is mandatory and sanctions are foreseen in the law against violators. However, the quality of the reporting system would preferably remain a matter of professionalism rather than coercion.
authors.affiliation: Office fédéral de la santé publique Division maladies transmissibles Schwarztorstrasse 96, 3003 Berne. karim.boubaker@bag.admin.ch
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Boubaker
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Graf
authors.forename: P-A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Raeber
mesh_terms: D003140:Communicable Disease Control; D006801:Humans; D019221:Mandatory Reporting