Please see below message from the Victorian Department of Health:
The Victorian Department of Health is seeking feedback from medical practitioners and health services on a proposal to upgrade rubella and congenital rubella to be urgent notifiable conditions for medical practitioners and pathology laboratories under the Public Health and Wellbeing Regulations 2019.
You can provide feedback on the proposed regulatory change between now and Monday, May 4, 2026 by emailing [email protected] or by using this short online feedback form.
The proposed change will:
align Victoria's notification framework with the Communicable Diseases Network Australia (CDNA) National Guideline for Rubella, which recommends immediate public health response to suspected, probable and confirmed cases of rubella
support timely contact tracing and pregnancy exposure assessment, ensuring post-exposure prophylaxis can be offered to non-immune pregnant contacts within the necessary timeframe.
What this would mean for you
Rubella and congenital rubella are currently routine notifiable conditions, requiring written notification within 5 days. The proposed change would mean all suspected or confirmed cases of rubella or congenital rubella must be notified to the Department of Health as soon as practicable and within 24 hours.
Suspected cases would be notified when a clinician has reasonable grounds to believe a patient may have rubella or congenital rubella, as determined by an individual risk assessment of the clinical presentation and available epidemiological evidence. Clinicians may wish to refer to the Communicable Disease Network Australia’s Surveillance case definition for rubella in humans.
Based on historical notification numbers, the department anticipates that the number of notifications per year will remain extremely low (< 5 annually, on average) with many years likely to result in no notifications at all.
Have your say
As part of the stakeholder engagement and consultation process, the department is seeking feedback on the proposed regulatory change between now and Monday, May 4, 2026.
This will help form a clearer view of the potential impacts of these proposed changes on medical practitioners, health services and our networked public health system more broadly.
Comments to the following questions are requested by email or using the online feedback form.
Do you support making rubella and congenital rubella urgent notifiable conditions?
What do you see as potential risks or burdens of the proposed regulatory change?
Do you have any further general comments for consideration by the Department of Health?