The goal of infection control is to prevent communicable diseases in humans, detect infections early, and prevent their further spread.

The Infection Protection Act (IfSG) requires doctors and laboratories to submit reports. A distinction is made between named reports of pathogens and unnamed reports of pathogen detection, as well as reports of vaccine-related injuries.

Specified pathogens:

Physicians and medical diagnostic laboratories are required to submit reports of abnormal findings to the local public health departments responsible for their medical practices if the pathogens specified in the law are diagnosed during an examination or from a specimen. The necessary reporting forms are provided by the respective state authorities.

Non-named pathogen detections:

Detections of pathogens listed in Section 7(3) of the IfSG must be reported anonymously directly to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI). The RKI provides special laboratory reporting forms for this purpose.

Vaccine-related adverse events:

Any suspicion of health damage exceeding the usual extent of a vaccine reaction must be reported. The report is submitted by the physician to the locally responsible public health department.