The STIs the Law Requires a Lab to Report

Which STIs are reported?

In the United States the sexually transmitted infections most consistently required to be reported are chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis — the three tracked in the national STI surveillance system, which logged over 2.4 million reported cases of them combined in 2023 1Ref 1Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2025).National Overview of STIs in 2023.2023 U.S. surveillance recorded over 2.4 million reported cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis combined (more than 1.6M chlamydia, over 600K gonorrhea, more than 209K syphilis); gonorrhea and primary/secondary syphilis declined, and nearly half of cases were among people aged 15 to 24. — along with HIV, whose positive results are reported to the health department under separate rules 2Ref 2HIV.gov (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) (2024).Limits on Confidentiality.A confidential (named) positive HIV result is reported to the health department, and identifiers are removed before the data reach the CDC.. When a lab confirms one of these, the reporting is routine and does not depend on your permission.

'Reportable' means a diagnosis is entered in a confidential public-health count, not that anyone in your personal life is told. The exact list is set at the state level, so a handful of other conditions — hepatitis, congenital syphilis, chancroid — are reportable in many states as well. Infections like genital herpes and most HPV are generally not reportable. Because the specifics vary, your state health department's notifiable-conditions list is the authoritative source for where you live.

It helps to know where that list comes from. Nationally, public-health agencies agree on a set of notifiable conditions, but the legal mandate to report is set by each state, which is why the edges differ from place to place. What is consistent everywhere is the trigger: a laboratory-confirmed diagnosis of a reportable infection generates the report automatically, through the lab and the clinician, without any action or consent on your part.

Why the law requires it: disease surveillance

The reason reporting is mandatory is surveillance — the running count that tells public-health agencies where infections are rising and where to send resources. The scale is the justification: more than 1.6 million chlamydia cases, over 600,000 gonorrhea cases, and more than 209,000 syphilis cases were reported in 2023, and nearly half of all cases were among people aged 15 to 24 1Ref 1Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2025).National Overview of STIs in 2023.2023 U.S. surveillance recorded over 2.4 million reported cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis combined (more than 1.6M chlamydia, over 600K gonorrhea, more than 209K syphilis); gonorrhea and primary/secondary syphilis declined, and nearly half of cases were among people aged 15 to 24.. A count that large only works if diagnoses flow in consistently.

Surveillance also catches turning points that no single clinic could see. In 2023, gonorrhea cases fell and primary and secondary syphilis declined for the first time in over two decades 1Ref 1Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2025).National Overview of STIs in 2023.2023 U.S. surveillance recorded over 2.4 million reported cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis combined (more than 1.6M chlamydia, over 600K gonorrhea, more than 209K syphilis); gonorrhea and primary/secondary syphilis declined, and nearly half of cases were among people aged 15 to 24. — trends that shape national prevention funding. Nearly half of reported STIs are in people aged 15 to 24 1Ref 1Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2025).National Overview of STIs in 2023.2023 U.S. surveillance recorded over 2.4 million reported cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis combined (more than 1.6M chlamydia, over 600K gonorrhea, more than 209K syphilis); gonorrhea and primary/secondary syphilis declined, and nearly half of cases were among people aged 15 to 24.. Your individual report is one data point in that picture; its value is collective, and its handling is confidential.

How a report moves once it is filed

Following a single report through the system demystifies it. A lab confirms a reportable infection and, together with the ordering clinician, sends the required information to the local or state health department — this is a legal duty of the lab and provider, not something you initiate or can decline 2Ref 2HIV.gov (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) (2024).Limits on Confidentiality.A confidential (named) positive HIV result is reported to the health department, and identifiers are removed before the data reach the CDC.. The health department logs it into the confidential surveillance system, where it becomes part of the case count that shapes prevention.

From there, two things can happen. The record may simply sit in the count, de-identified before it ever contributes to national figures 2Ref 2HIV.gov (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) (2024).Limits on Confidentiality.A confidential (named) positive HIV result is reported to the health department, and identifiers are removed before the data reach the CDC.. Or, for certain infections, it may prompt voluntary partner services outreach. At no point in this chain does the report travel to your employer, your school, or a public list. A report is a one-way flow into a confidential public-health system, not a broadcast. Understanding the path is often enough to shrink the fear, because the fear usually pictures a destination the data never reaches.

What a report actually triggers

A report sets two things in motion, and neither is punitive. The first is the surveillance entry above. The second, for some infections, is partner services: a health-department program that helps make sure recent partners learn they may have been exposed so they can be tested and treated. Whether this happens depends on the infection, the health department's capacity, and the situation — it is generally more intensive for HIV and syphilis than for chlamydia.

If a health-department worker does reach out, it is usually to offer testing and treatment and to ask, voluntarily, about recent partners so they can be notified. You are not required to name anyone, and the outreach is built around your consent. What a health department follow-up looks like in practice — who contacts you, what they ask, whether you have to respond — has its own page in this library. The through-line is that a report opens a door to help, not to enforcement.

Partner services, where they are offered, are voluntary and free. A specialist can help you think through who may need to know and can even make the notifications on your behalf, so the message comes from the health department rather than from you. Declining is allowed. The program is measured by how many partners get tested and treated, which is why it is built to be easy to accept and easy to refuse.

Is your name shared?

For the diagnosis itself, your name goes to the health department but not past it. Take HIV as the clearest example: a confidential (named) positive result is reported to the health department with your name attached, and identifiers are removed before the data reach the CDC 2Ref 2HIV.gov (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) (2024).Limits on Confidentiality.A confidential (named) positive HIV result is reported to the health department, and identifiers are removed before the data reach the CDC.. Health-department staff are themselves bound by strict confidentiality, and the national numbers are de-identified. Your name is in the local record; it is not in the national count.

For partners, the design goes further. Partner services are built so that a partner can be told they may have been exposed without being told who named them — the whole point of sti contact tracing confidentiality is that notification and identity are deliberately separated. So the honest answer to 'is my name shared' is layered: yes, within the health department's confidential system; no, to the CDC's national data; and no, to a partner, who learns of an exposure without learning its source. The finer question of identity in sti reporting has a dedicated page.

The confidentiality protections are not incidental; they are part of the same law that requires the reporting in the first place. Surveillance systems are built with access controls, and health-department staff who handle case data are bound by confidentiality rules that carry their own penalties for breach. The bargain is explicit: the system can compel a report precisely because it also constrains what can be done with what is reported 2Ref 2HIV.gov (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) (2024).Limits on Confidentiality.A confidential (named) positive HIV result is reported to the health department, and identifiers are removed before the data reach the CDC..

Expedited partner therapy and partner notification

Beyond the health department's own outreach, there is a clinical channel for getting partners treated: expedited partner therapy. CDC guidance supports routinely offering it for chlamydia and gonorrhea — a provider gives you a prescription or medication to pass to recent partners (roughly the previous 60 days) so they can be treated without their own visit, unless prohibited by law 3Ref 3Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2021).Expedited Partner Therapy.Providers should routinely offer expedited partner therapy for chlamydia and gonorrhea when a patient's sex partners (from the previous 60 days) are unlikely to seek timely treatment, unless prohibited by law.. It is a way to close the loop quickly when a partner is unlikely to come in on their own.

EPT's legal status is not uniform: it is permissible in most, though not all, states, and the details vary by jurisdiction 4Ref 4Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2024).Legal Status of Expedited Partner Therapy (EPT).Expedited partner therapy is permissible in the large majority of U.S. states plus DC, and its legal status varies by jurisdiction.. Where it is not available, health-department partner services or a direct conversation are the routes. These options sit alongside reporting rather than replacing it — reporting feeds the public-health count, while EPT and partner services feed the practical goal of getting people treated before the infection spreads further.

EPT has boundaries worth knowing. It is intended for chlamydia and gonorrhea, not for infections like syphilis or HIV, where a partner needs a full evaluation of their own 3Ref 3Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2021).Expedited Partner Therapy.Providers should routinely offer expedited partner therapy for chlamydia and gonorrhea when a patient's sex partners (from the previous 60 days) are unlikely to seek timely treatment, unless prohibited by law.. A partner treated this way should still ideally be seen, to be checked for other infections. And because its legality is set state by state, a provider can only offer it where the law allows 4Ref 4Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2024).Legal Status of Expedited Partner Therapy (EPT).Expedited partner therapy is permissible in the large majority of U.S. states plus DC, and its legal status varies by jurisdiction.. It widens access to treatment; it does not replace a partner's own visit in every case.

What reporting is not

Reporting to a health department is frequently confused with three things it is not. It is not a disclosure to your family or employer — that risk runs through the insurance EOB and shared records, which sti care confidentiality tools address, not through surveillance. It is not the same as the disclosure law that governs whether you must tell a partner, which is a separate legal question covered under sti disclosure law. And a routine report does not, by itself, surface on unrelated screenings.

One place people worry specifically is immigration: whether a reported STI affects an immigration medical exam stis question is its own topic, governed by immigration rules rather than by public-health reporting, and it has a dedicated page. The general principle holds across all of these: a reportable-condition report is a closed public-health data flow. It does not broadcast outward into the other institutions in your life on its own.

How to check your state and get help

Because reportable-condition lists are maintained state by state, the authoritative source for what is reportable where you live is your own state or local health department's notifiable-conditions list, usually posted online. That is also where you can confirm how your state handles partner services and whether EPT is available. Reading your state's own list beats relying on a national summary, because the edges of the list genuinely differ from place to place.

If you need to find low-cost or confidential testing, treatment, or help understanding a diagnosis, 211 is a free, confidential, around-the-clock information and referral service that connects people to local health and human services online or by phone 5Ref 5United Way Worldwide (2024).Call 211 for Essential Community Services.211 is a free, confidential, 24/7 information and referral service that connects people to local health and human services, including help finding health care.. It does not diagnose or report anything; it simply points you to services. Between your state's notifiable-conditions page and a referral line, you can get both the rule and the next step without guessing.

When you read your state's notifiable-conditions page, the useful things to note are which STIs appear on it, whether the page describes partner services, and how the department says it protects confidentiality. If cost or privacy is the barrier to getting tested in the first place, a referral line can point you to sliding-scale or confidential options nearby 5Ref 5United Way Worldwide (2024).Call 211 for Essential Community Services.211 is a free, confidential, 24/7 information and referral service that connects people to local health and human services, including help finding health care.. The rule and the resource together turn an anxious search into a short list of concrete next steps.