Infectious Disease Reporting and Data | Vermont Department of Health

In this section:

The Reportable Disease Rule has been updated for 2024.

For key changes and highlights, please see the Health Advisory Notification.

Vermont’s list of reportable diseases and the time frames in which they are required to be reported to the Health Department are specified in Vermont law (Reportable and Communicable Disease Rule).

The Vermont Department of Health depends on reports of diseases and conditions of public health concern to protect the health of Vermont residents. Timely reporting ensures that cases of communicable disease can be investigated quickly so steps can be taken to prevent the spread of the disease. Organizations and professionals who know or suspect that a person has (or has died of) a disease dangerous to the public’s health are required to report to the Health Department.

Health care providers and laboratories are required by law to notify the Health Department regarding patients with certain suspected or confirmed reportable diseases. Both laboratory confirmed and clinical diagnoses are reportable within 24 hours. Immediate reporting is essential for a limited number of conditions that require prompt public health follow-up (like measles and meningococcal disease), and for diseases that might indicate a bioterrorism incident.

Reportable and Communicable Disease Rule

Who must report?

Infection preventionists
Health care providers
Laboratory directors
Nurses
Nurse practitioners
Physician assistants
Physicians
School health officials
Administrators of long-term care and assisted living facilities
Any other health care provider, as defined by 18 V.S.A 9402
Veterinarians (for reportable animal diseases)

What diseases must be reported?

To Report:

Call by phone for all immediately reportable findings.

Phone: The Infectious Disease Program at 802-863-7240 or 1-800-640-4374 (within Vermont only) from 7:45 a.m. through 4:30 p.m. on business days. An epidemiologist is available 24/7 for diseases that require prompt public health follow-up or consultation.

Electronic Case Reporting (eCR): Automated case reporting to the Health Department.

Fax: Health Care professionals can fax paper reports to the Epidemiology Program's confidential fax at 802-951-4061.

Disease	Reporting Timeline	Specimens Required to go to VDHL
Anaplasmosis	within 24 hours
Animal Bites	within 24 hours
Anthrax	immediately	Yes, including bacillius cereus, biovar anthracis
Babesiosis	within 24 hours
Blastomycosis	within 24 hours
Blood lead levels	within 24 hours
Borrelia miyamotoi infection (Hard tick replasing fever)	within 24 hours
Botulism	immediately
Brucellosis	immediately	Yes
Campylobacteriosis	within 24 hours	Yes
Candida auris	within 24 hours	Yes
Carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (CRAB), including susceptibility results	within 24 hours	Yes
Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE), including susceptibility results	within 24 hours	Yes
Carbapenem-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa (CRPA), including susceptibility results	within 24 hours	Yes
Chikungunya virus disease	within 24 hours
Chlamydia trachomatis infection	within 24 hours
Cholera	immediately
COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) postive results	within 24 hours
COVID-19-related pediatric deaths	within 24 hours
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease/transmissible spongiform encephalopathies	within 24 hours
Cryptosporidiosis	within 24 hours	Yes
Cyclosporiasis	within 24 hours
Dengue	within 24 hours
Diphtheria	immediately	Yes
Eastern equine encephalitis illness	within 24 hours	Yes
Ehrlichiosis	within 24 hours
Encephalitis	within 24 hours
Glanders	immediately	Yes
Gonorrhea	within 24 hours
Haemophilus influenzae disease, invasive	immediately	Yes
Hantavirus disease	within 24 hours	Yes
Hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS)	within 24 hours
Hepatitis A	immediately
Hepatitis B	within 24 hours
Hepatitis C	within 24 hours
Hepatitis E	within 24 hours
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/AIDS	within 24 hours
Infant botulism	immediately	Yes
Individual cases of influenza due to novel strain of Influenza A	immediately	Yes
Pediatric influenza-related deaths	within 24 hours
Influenza institutional outbreaks	within 24 hours
Jamestown Canyon virus disease	within 24 hours	`Yes
La Crosse virus disease	within 24 hours	Yes
Legionellosis	within 24 hours	Yes
Leptospirosis	within 24 hours	Yes
Listeriosis	within 24 hours	Yes
Lyme disease	within 24 hours
Malaria	within 24 hours	`
Measles (Rubeola)	immediately
Melioidosis	immediately	Yes
Meningitis, bacterial	immediately
Meningococcal disease	immediately	Yes
Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS)	immediately	Yes
Mpox	within 24 hours
Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C)	within 24 hours
Mumps	within 24 hours
Pertussis (whooping cough)	within 24 hours
Plague	immediately	Yes
Poliovirus infection, including poliomyelitis	immediately
Powassan virus disease	within 24 hours	Yes
Psittacosis	within 24 hours
Q Fever	within 24 hours	Yes
Rabies, animal and human cases	immediately
Rabies post exposure treatment in humans (irrespective of evidence of rabies)	within 24 hours
Reye syndrome	within 24 hours
Ricin Toxin	within 24 hours	Yes
Rubella (German Measles)	immediately
Rubella, congenital rubella syndrome	within 24 hours
Salmonella Paratyphi	immediately	Yes
Salmonella Typhi	immediately	Yes
Salmonellosis	within 24 hours	Yes
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) - associated	immediately	Yes
Shiga toxin-producing E.coli (STEC)	within 24 hours	Yes
Shigellosis	within 24 hours	Yes
Smallpox (variola)	immediately
Spotted fever rickettsiosis	within 24 hours
St. Louis encephalitis	within 24 hours	Yes
Streptococcal disease, Group A, invasive	within 24 hours
Streptococcal disease, Group B invasive (infants less than one month of age)	within 24 hours
Streptococcus pneumoniae disease, invasive	within 24 hours
Syphilis	within 24 hours
Tetanus	within 24 hours
Toxic shock syndrome	within 24 hours
Trichinosis	within 24 hours
Tuberculosis infection, latent	within 24 hours
Tuberculosis disease	immediately	Yes
Tularemia	immediately	Yes
Vaccinia (disease or adverse event)	within 24 hours
Varicella (chicken pox only)	within 24 hours
Vibriosis	within 24 hours	Yes
VRSA, VISA infection	within 24 hours	Yes
West Nile virus illness	within 24 hours	Yes
Yellow fever	within 24 hours
Yersiniosis	within 24 hours	Yes
Zika virus infection	within 24 hours

* Examples of institutions include long-term care facility, school, child care facility, correctional facility, shelter, camp, hospital, and day care centers.

What laboratory findings must be reported?

To Report:

Laboratory findings should be reported via electronic laboratory reporting. For immediately reportable findings, call the Infectious Disease Program at 802-863-7240 or 1-800-640-4374 (with Vermont only), available 24/7.

Disease	Reporting Timeline	Specimens Required to go to VDHL
Anaplasma phagocytophilum	within 24 hours
Babesia microti, Babesia divergens, Babesia duncani	within 24 hours
Bacillus anthracis, bacillius cereus, biovar anthracis	immediately	Yes
Blastomycosis	within 24 hours
Blood lead levels (all results, including undetectable)	within 24 hours
Bordetella pertussis	within 24 hours
Borrelia burgdorferi	within 24 hours
Borrelia mayonii	within 24 hours
Borrelia miyamotoi	within 24 hours
Brucella species	immediately	Yes
Burkholderia mallei	immediately	Yes
Burkholderia pseudomallei	immediately	Yes
Campylobacter species	within 24 hours	Yes
Candida auris	within 24 hours	Yes
Carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (CRAB), including susceptibility results	within 24 hours	Yes
Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE), including susceptibility results	within 24 hours	Yes
Carbapenem-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa (CRPA), including susceptibility results	within 24 hours	Yes
CD4+ T-lymphocyte counts and percentages (all results)	within 24 hours
Chikungunya virus	within 24 hours
Chlamydia psittaci	within 24 hours
Chlamydia trachomatis	within 24 hours
Clostridium botulinum	immediately	Yes
Clostridium tetani	within 24 hours
Corynebacterium diphtheriae	immediately	Yes
Coxiella burnetii	within 24 hours
Cryptosporidium species	within 24 hours	Yes
CSF cultures (all positive findings)	within 24 hours
Cyclospora cayetanensis	within 24 hours
Dengue virus	within 24 hours
Eastern equine encephalitis virus	within 24 hours	Yes
Ehrlichia species	within 24 hours
Francisella tularensis	immediately	Yes
Haemophilus influenzae, isolated from a normally sterile site	immediately	Yes
Hantavirus	within 24 hours	Yes
Hepatitis A virus (anti-HAV IgM)	immediately
Hepatitis B virus (HBsAg, anti-HBcIgM, HBeAg, HBV DNA)	within 24 hours
Hepatitis C virus (HCV), positive antibody results; non-detectable Hep C nucleic acid results; genotype results	within 24 hours
Hepatitis E virus (IgM anti-HEV)	within 24 hours
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV): Includes the following: HIV viral load measurement (including non-detectable results) All HIV subtype and HIV nucleotide sequence data from antiretroviral drug resistance testing	within 24 hours
Influenza - novel A strain only	immediately	Yes
Jamestown Canyon virus	within 24 hours	Yes
La Crosse virus	within 24 hours	Yes
Legionella species	within 24 hours	Yes
Leptospira species	within 24 hours	Yes
Listeria monocytogenes	within 24 hours	Yes
Measles virus	immediately
MERS CoV	immediately	Yes
MPXV Clade I and II, non-variola Orthopoxvirus	within 24 hours
Mumps virus	within 24 hours
Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (including positive interferon-gamma release assay (IGRA) test results	within 24 hours	Yes
Mycobacterium tuberculosis positive skin test (TST) results	within 24 hours	Yes
Neisseria gonorrhoeae	within 24 hours
Neisseria meningitidis, isolated from a normally sterile site	immediately	Yes
Plasmodium species	within 24 hours
Polio virus	immediately
Powassan virus	within 24 hours	Yes
Rabies virus	immediately
Ricin toxin (from Ricinus communis (castor beans))	within 24 hours	Yes
Rickettsia species	within 24 hours
Rubella virus	within 24 hours
Salmonella Paratyphi	immediately	Yes
Salmonella Typhi	immediately	Yes
Salmonella species	within 24 hours	Yes
SARS-CoV/SARS - associated virus	immediately	Yes
SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) - positive results	within 24 hours
SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) related pediatric deaths	within 24 hours
Shigella species	within 24 hours	Yes
Shiga toxin-producing E.coli (STEC) (including O157:H7)	within 24 hours	Yes
Smallpox (variola)	immediately
St. Louis encephalitis	within 24 hours	Yes
Staphylococcus aureus, vancomycin resistant (VRSA) and vancomycin intermediate (VISA), including susceptibility results	within 24 hours	Yes
Streptococcus, Group A, isolated from a normally sterile site	within 24 hours	Yes
Streptococcus, Group B, isolated from a normally sterile site (infants less than one month of age)	within 24 hours
Streptococcus pneumoniae, isolated from a normally sterile site, including susceptibility results	within 24 hours
Treponema pallidum and all confirmatory tests for syphilis that result from an initial positive screening test, regardless of result (positive and negative)	within 24 hours
Trichinella spiralis	within 24 hours
Vaccinia virus	within 24 hours
Varicella virus	within 24 hours
Vibrio cholerae serogroups O1 or O139	immediately
Vibrio species	within 24 hours	Yes
West Nile virus	within 24 hours	Yes
Yellow fever virus	within 24 hours
Yersinia enterocolitica	within 24 hours	Yes
Yersinia pestis	immediately	Yes
Zika virus	within 24 hours

What animal diseases must be reported?

To Report:

Contact the Infectious Disease Epidemiology Program at 802-863-7240 or 800-640-4374 (within Vermont only) from 7:45 a.m. through 4:30 p.m. on business days. An epidemiologist is available 24/7 for diseases that require prompt public health follow-up.

The list below shows reportable animal diseases to the Department of Health. Other diseases may be reportable to the Agency of Agriculture.

Disease	Reporting Timeline
Anthrax	within 24 hours
Arboviral: eastern equine encephalitis, Venezuelan equine encephalitis, western equine encephalitis, West Nile virus	within 24 hours
Avian Chlamydiosis (Psittacosis, Ornithosis)	within 24 hours
Brucellosis (Brucella species)	within 24 hours
Glanders (Burkholderia mallei)	within 24 hours
Hantavirus	within 24 hours
Hendra virus	within 24 hours
Highly pathogenic avian influenza	within 24 hours
Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex	within 24 hours
Nipah virus	within 24 hours
Non-Variola Orthopoxvirus (mpox)	within 24 hours
Plague (Yersinia pestis)	within 24 hours
Q Fever (Coxiella burnetti)	within 24 hours
Rabies	within 24 hours
SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) infection	within 24 hours
Tularemia (Francisella tularensis)	within 24 hours
Typhus fever (Rickettsia prowazekii)	within 24 hours
Cryptosporidiosis	within 24 hours

How to report diseases and laboratory findings.

Call: The Infectious Disease Program at 802-863-7240 or 1-800-640-4374 (within Vermont only) from 7:45 a.m. through 4:30 p.m. on business days. An epidemiologist is available 24/7 for diseases that require prompt public health follow-up or consultation.

Report online: Health care professionals can use a secure online report form for conditions that are not immediately notifiable.

Do not use this form for immediately notifiable conditions or Lyme disease. Clinical information for cases of Lyme disease no longer needs to be reported to the Health Department; instead, laboratory evidence of infection is required to be counted in surveillance estimates in Vermont. Please see 2022 Health Advisory for more information.

Electronic Case Reporting (eCR): Automated case reporting to the Health Department.

Fax: Health Care professionals can fax paper reports for not immediately notifiable conditions to the Epidemiology Program's confidential fax at 802-951-4061.

Laboratory Findings: Use electronic laboratory reporting or for immediately reportable findings, call the Infectious Disease Program at 802-863-7240 or 1-800-640-4374 (VT only), available 24/7.