When a disease has historically never been reported in my country and is introduced for the first time, shall I notify it in an immediate notification as a 'first occurrence in a zone' or a 'first occurrence in the whole country'?

When a disease has historically never been reported in my country and is introduced for the first time, shall I notify it in an immediate notification as a 'first occurrence in a zone' or a 'first occurrence in the whole country' knowing that only one single outbreak has been confirmed in a small area?

When a disease is detected for the first time in the history of your country, the event should be considered as a first occurrence in the whole country and not in a zone of the country, even if it is in fact circumscribed to a small area. You can however specify that the reported event is occurring in a zone by selecting this option in the relevant field 'the event occurs in'.

It may happen as well that a disease occurs for the first time in a zone of your country/territory and that would mean that the disease is either present or occurred previously in other zones of your country. In that case, the immediate notification should be reported as the first occurrence of a disease in a zone.

As you know, data entered in an immediate notification and the follow-up reports resulting from it is automatically transferred to the six-monthly report. The by-default occurrence code automatically transferred into the six-monthly report will be 'present limited to zones'.