[General practitioners and mandatory surveillance of communicable diseases: a descriptive study in Puglia (South Italy)]

Public health passive surveillance systems are often affected by low sensitivity level. Enhancement of the reporting by general practitioners is important to improve the sensitivity of notification system. The aim of this work was to evaluate the mandatory notification activities of communicable diseases by general practitioners (GPs) and family pediatricians (FPs) in the Local Health Unit Bari/4, during the years 1999-2000. This study shows that GPs and FPs notified only 39% and 28% of notifiable diseases respectively in 1999 and 2000, although some of these diseases have a very low hospitalization rate. The majority of doctors never notified any case of infectious disease during the period. The study shows also that the doctors who was older and who had larger list of patients had a greater compliance regarding notification. Therefore, a specific training of family doctors and a better facility in the notification procedures (for example, by phone or e-mail) should be very important to improve the sensitivity of surveillance system.