The Alabama disease reporting changes taking effect Nov. 14, 2026, add specific 24-hour duties for health care providers and laboratories. The update covers Candida auris, certain carbapenemase-producing organisms, alpha-gal syndrome laboratory results and several isolate-submission requirements.
The Alabama Department of Public Health posted the health alert Oct. 23. It says the revised Notifiable Disease Rules affect provider reporting, electronic laboratory reporting and the clinical material that laboratories send to the state public health laboratory.
Alabama disease reporting changes by role
The practical distinction is who must act and how. This table condenses the official alert without replacing the rule.
| Duty | Who acts | Deadline or route |
|---|---|---|
| Report Candida auris infection or colonization | Providers and laboratories | Within 24 hours; providers use the ADPH REPORT Card and laboratories use ELR |
| Report specified carbapenemase-producing organism infection or colonization | Providers and laboratories | Within 24 hours through the same role-specific routes |
| Report qualifying alpha-gal syndrome test results | Laboratories only | Within 24 hours by ELR |
| Submit designated resistant isolates | Laboratories only | Send to the state laboratory for confirmatory or further testing |
The carbapenemase-producing organism category includes Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and organisms in the Enterobacterales order, such as E. coli, Enterobacter species and Klebsiella. The alert identifies infections and colonization, so a workflow limited to symptomatic cases may miss a reporting duty.
For alpha-gal syndrome, the laboratory trigger is a serum or plasma immunoglobulin E result specific to alpha-gal at or above 0.1 IU/mL or 0.1 kU/L. The alert assigns that requirement to laboratories, not to every individual patient.
Which isolates must go to the state lab
Reporting and specimen submission remain separate under the Alabama disease reporting changes. Laboratories must submit Staphylococcus aureus isolates that are vancomycin-intermediate or vancomycin-resistant for confirmatory testing.
They must also submit isolates of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales, carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii and carbapenem-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa for additional testing. An electronic report does not by itself complete an isolate-submission requirement.
A Nov. 14 readiness checklist
Before the effective date, a clinic or laboratory can compare its internal trigger list with the updated conditions, confirm that staff know the 24-hour window, test the proper REPORT Card or ELR route and verify packaging and transfer procedures for required isolates.
Organizations should also check whether responsibilities are clearly assigned for results that arrive after normal business hours. The official alert offers a one-hour continuing-education training for staff and lists the Bureau of Communicable Disease at 1-800-338-8374 for questions.
These duties are operational requirements for health professionals. Patients do not need to file these professional reports themselves. Anyone seeking diagnosis or treatment for possible infection or alpha-gal syndrome should contact a qualified health care professional rather than interpreting a surveillance rule as medical advice.
Why the effective date matters
The revised list becomes effective on a Saturday. That makes advance configuration important for organizations whose electronic systems or weekend staffing cannot be changed instantly. A final review during the week before Nov. 14 can catch missing condition codes, routing errors or unclear specimen handoffs.
Managers can document that review with four simple records: the date the condition list was updated, the staff member responsible for after-hours reports, the successful test of each electronic route and the contact used for isolate transport. That documentation will not replace the rule, but it can reveal a gap before a real result arrives. The Alabama disease reporting changes are specific enough that one generic “reportable disease” checklist may no longer cover every handoff.
The official ADPH alert is the controlling source for the Alabama disease reporting changes. Health care organizations should retain the full rule and alert with their compliance materials, because this summary focuses on the newly highlighted duties rather than every reportable condition in Alabama.
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