Infectious Disease

What to do if you think you have caught an infectious disease?

An infectious disease is a clinically evident disease resulting from the presence of pathogenic microbial agents, including pathogenic viruses, pathogenic bacteria, fungi, protozoa, multicellular parasites, and aberrant proteins known as prions.  These pathogens are able to cause disease in animals and/or plants.

Infectious pathologies are usually qualified as contagious diseases (also called communicable diseases) due to their potentiality of transmission from one person or species to another. Transmission of an infectious disease may occur through one or more of diverse pathways including physical contact with infected individuals. These infecting agents may also be transmitted through liquids, food, body fluids, contaminated objects, airborne inhalation, or through vector-borne spread.

The term infectivity describes the ability of an organism to enter, survive and multiply in the host, while the infectiousness of a disease indicates the comparative ease with which the disease is transmitted to other hosts. An infection however, is not synonymous with an infectious disease, as an infection may not cause important clinical symptoms or impair host function.

If you suspect you have a notifiable/ infectious disease visit your local doctor immediately. If testing shows that you have an infectious disease the Shire of Narrogin will be notified via the Department of Health and an investigation completed. You may be contacted by an Environmental Health Officer who will need to ask you a range of questions that include those in relation to your whereabouts and what you consumed in the week prior to becoming ill. Any information is treated as confidential and is purely for research purposes only.

Disease Information

Gastroenteritis fact sheet
Campylobacter Infection
Cholera
Cryptosporidiosis
Giardia
Hepatitis A
Listeria
Norovirus
Salmonellosis
Shiga toxin producing E.coli (STEC/VTEC and HUS)
Shigella infection and dysentery
Typhoid and paratyphoid fever
Ross River Virus & Barmah Forest Virus
Blood Borne Viruses
Whooping Cough (Pertussis) Fact Sheet