The aim of infection protection is to prevent communicable diseases in humans, to detect infections at an early stage and to prevent their spread.

The Infection Protection Act (IfSG) obliges doctors and laboratories to report. A distinction is made between named reports of pathogens and non-named reports of pathogen detections as well as reports of vaccine damage.

Named pathogens:

Doctors and laboratories for medical diagnostics are obliged to provide the local health authorities responsible for the medical practices with reports of conspicuous findings if the pathogens specified in the law are diagnosed during an examination or sample. The required registration forms are provided by the respective state authorities.

Unnamed pathogen detections:

The pathogen detections referred to in § 7 (3) IfSG are not to be reported directly to the Robert Koch Institute. The RKI provides special laboratory reporting forms for this purpose.

Vaccine damage:

The suspicion of damage to health beyond the usual level of a vaccine reaction is notifiable. The report is made by the doctor to the locally responsible health authority.