September 3, 2024

Infectious Diseases

CDC partners with forensic pathologists, medical examiners, and coroners investigating deaths that involve or potentially involve infectious diseases.
CDC can help you access state-of-the-art technology to determine the causes of unexplained deaths.
CDC provides guidance for safely collecting and handling infectious disease specimens.

Scientist examining a specimen under a microscope

Overview

CDC can test and analyze some specimens collected in autopsies and medical death investigations.

CDC has worked with medical examiners, coroners, and pathologists to use advanced technology—

Determine the cause of unexplained deaths
Discover new pathogens
Help state and local authorities track unexplained deaths and critical illnesses

Infectious disease testing

CDC only accepts specimens from state public health labs and other federal agencies. Medical examiners and coroners must send specimens to their local or state laboratory first. Your local or state lab must process the samples before sending them to CDC.

Public health staff should review CDC guidelines before contacting us for infectious disease testing or sending any specimens.

CDC's Infectious Diseases Laboratory test directory provides an up-to-date, searchable list of tests that can be ordered. This resource also includes—

Specimen requirements
Turnaround times
Contact and supplemental information for submission

Other CDC testing resources

Infectious Diseases Pathology
CDC ePathology
- Remote consultation
CDC DPDx
- A global resource for parasitic diseases

Specimen collection and biosafety recommendations

Biosafety in Microbiological and Biomedical Laboratories (BMBL) 6th Edition

Collecting specimens for specific infectious disease testing

Disease reporting

Infectious diseases and non-infectious conditions that pose serious health threats may be reportable or notifiable. These designations are not the same, though some diseases and conditions may be both reportable and notifiable. Diseases are classified as reportable, notifiable, or both because of their contagiousness, severity, or frequency.

Requirements to report or notify certain diseases and conditions help—

Alert the proper public health professionals
Locate the source of outbreaks
Monitor and prevent the spread of disease
Inform communities about risk

Reportable diseases

Each state or territory decides which diseases and conditions must be reported in their jurisdiction, as required by law. States and territories can update their individual lists each year.

You must inform your public health department when you identify a case of a reportable disease. Contact your state or territorial health department to—

Learn more about reportable diseases in your jurisdiction
How you are expected to report them

Notifiable diseases

CDC and the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) determine which diseases and conditions are notifiable. Currently, there are about 120 nationally notifiable diseases and conditions. The list of diseases and conditions is updated every year.

When a notifiable disease is diagnosed, CSTS recommends that state health departments report the case to CDC. Notification is voluntary.

Nationally notifiable disease surveillance

Case surveillance of nationally notifiable diseases starts at local, state, and territorial public health departments. CSTE recommends state health departments report cases to CDC's National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System. This system provides information about and resources for disease surveillance.

Every year, case definitions are updated using CSTE's Position Statements. These case definitions provide standard reporting criteria for diseases and conditions. CDC has a search tool you can use to look up surveillance case definitions for current and historical conditions.

The list of notifiable diseases and the timetable for reporting differs by state and territory. Some states could have conditions that are notifiable in the jurisdiction but are not nationally notifiable. To learn more, please contact your state or territorial health department.

Note‎

Some conditions are notifiable because they have resulted in death. Medical examiners and coroners may be the first to identify these conditions. Examples include pediatric influenza-associated mortality and Respiratory Syncytial Virus-Associated Mortality.

Contacts