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CENO On-line FAQ
- I have just reported a case through the CENO via CENO On-line. When will the CHP start taking actions?
- Should I wait until I have the diagnosis confirmed before reporting?
- Should I notify tuberculosis cases to CENO or Tuberculosis & Chest Service?I have a case to report but I have difficulty in using CENO On-line. What should I do?
- Under what situation should we call Medical Control Officer?
- Do I need to report all infectious diseases to the CHP at CENO?
- May I have further details about the infectious conditions you quoted in Q.5 above?
- I suspect the patient I have just seen is suffering from tuberculosis based on his/her clinical features. Should I made a report to you right now or to wait till the culture result is available?
- How can I contact the MCO?
- What type of information do I need to provide in the case reports?
- I have just reported a case through the CENO via CENO On-line. When will the CHP start taking actions?
- CHP will initiate investigation within one working day after a case report is received. Generally, investigation will be started within the same day when the reporting is made during office hours, that is, Monday (9 am to 6 pm) and Tuesday to Friday (9 am to 5:45 pm).
- If the report is made after office hours, during weekends or on public holidays, the on-duty Medical Control Officer (MCO) of DH will screen the incoming reports via secure internet sites or remote voice message checking mechanisms. Investigations may still be initiated for urgent cases. (Please see Q.4 for examples of urgent cases).
- However, in order to speed up the investigation process and the subsequent intervention, we propose you to assist in the following two situations when you are making reports to us outside office hours:
- For urgent cases, please also page the Medical Control Officer for immediate attention.
- For suspected food poisoning outbreaks, please also report to the Duty Room of Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) so that the duty Health Inspector can start investigation promptly.
Contact no. of FEHD Duty Room Hong Kong Island and other islands Kowloon New Territories Fax no. 2806 1445 2391 7749 2487 7614 Tel. no. 2571 7270 2394 6957 2424 0853
- Should I wait until I have the diagnosis confirmed before reporting?
- In general, the sooner an infectious disease gets notified, the better, including suspected cases. For the different channels of notification, please refer to https://cdis.chp.gov.hk
- Should I notify tuberculosis cases to CENO or Tuberculosis & Chest Service?I have a case to report but I have difficulty in using CENO On-line. What should I do?
- You may send your completed notification forms to CENO (fax: 2477 2770) or Tuberculosis & Chest Service (fax: 2572 8921). If you report via the web system, i.e., the CENO On-line, there is no need to send again to either of the above fax number. You may wish to note that the Tuberculosis and Chest Service also provide treatment services, in addition to diagnosis and contact tracing.
Please contact CENO (Tel: 2477 2772) during office hours to report the case, and let us know about your difficulty.
- You may send your completed notification forms to CENO (fax: 2477 2770) or Tuberculosis & Chest Service (fax: 2572 8921). If you report via the web system, i.e., the CENO On-line, there is no need to send again to either of the above fax number. You may wish to note that the Tuberculosis and Chest Service also provide treatment services, in addition to diagnosis and contact tracing.
- Under what situation should we call Medical Control Officer?
- Please contact our duty Medical Control Officers when you are reporting an urgent case outside office hours. Urgent cases include the following:
- cases that are severe and fatal (e.g. cholera, invasive meningococcal infection or Streptococcus suis infection)
- widespread transmission has occurred (e.g. unusual large outbreak of infectious diseases)
- rare cases in Hong Kong (e.g. acute poliomyelitis, influenza A(H2/5/7/9), plague, rabies, SARS or yellow fever)
- cases that may be related to deliberate release (e.g. anthrax or botulism)
- Please contact our duty Medical Control Officers when you are reporting an urgent case outside office hours. Urgent cases include the following:
- Do I need to report all infectious diseases to the CHP at CENO?
- When a doctor has reasons to suspect the existence of any of the following three groups of diseases, a report shall be made to CENO so that the CHP can initiate investigations. These three groups include:
- Statutory notifiable diseases: these diseases are defined by law (the Prevention and Control Disease Ordinance, Cap 599) as infectious diseases and reporting is mandatory. The diseases are listed in Schedule I of the Ordinance. At present, there are diseases or conditions listed on the Schedule.
- Infectious diseases of topical public health concern (e.g. acute flaccid paralysis, brucellosis, Vibrio vulnificus infection)
- Suspected institutional outbreaks (e.g. acute gastroenteritis or Hand, foot and mouth disease).
- When a doctor has reasons to suspect the existence of any of the following three groups of diseases, a report shall be made to CENO so that the CHP can initiate investigations. These three groups include:
- May I have further details about the infectious conditions you quoted in Q.5 above?
- We have compiled a set of case definitions for the conditions listed in Q.5. The document is available in Case Definition
- I suspect the patient I have just seen is suffering from tuberculosis based on his/her clinical features. Should I made a report to you right now or to wait till the culture result is available?
- Please refer to the guidance notes on TB notification at http://www.info.gov.hk/tb_chest
- How can I contact the MCO?
- The Medical Control Officer call list is updated regularly and distributed to all public and private hospitals. You may wish to refer to your affiliated hospital for the contact.
- What type of information do I need to provide in the case reports?
- We would require the minimal set of patient particulars in order to initiate the investigation and verify for duplication. This set of information include: patient name, patient ID number, patient contact number (preferably both phone number and address), the suspected disease.
- During the subsequent investigation, we also need further information such as clinical histories, hospitalization and investigation findings etc to confirm the diagnosis, assess the severity and prevent further potential spread.
- What is the use of information collected?
- The data collected is used for immediate response including delineation of case status, verification of epidemiological, clinical and laboratory data, and, as appropriate, implementation of the necessary control measures. Apart from case investigations, the de-identified data will be reviewed regularly so as to identify any abnormal patterns and changes in epidemiology. The monthly notification figures for the statutory notifiable diseases are uploaded to the Centre for Health Protection website. The recent statistics may change over time when more information is collected and the case is re-classified, say, from clinical/probable to confirmed or deleted case. Moreover, the case classification will be made based on the current case definition. The users of these data should be aware of these changes and understand the potential impact to their study questions in mind.
- What is CENO On-line?
- CENO has been set up under the CHP to centralize communicable diseases notifications and monitoring in Hong Kong. CENO On-line is literally CENO on the internet. This website provides a secure and convenient web-based notification system for registered medical practitioners to report cases online.
- How would be feedback be provided?
- For all cases reported via CENO On-line, the investigation status will be listed for each case. The five statuses are shown in the table below:
Case status Interpretation New Case newly reported by medical practitioner Pending verification Case received by CHP, pending verification by investigation team Under investigation Under investigation and surveillance Case completed Investigation and surveillance completed Case deleted Case deleted (e.g. duplicated report, not meeting surveillance case definition or diagnosis excluded.)
- For all cases reported via CENO On-line, the investigation status will be listed for each case. The five statuses are shown in the table below:
- Is it secure to report cases through CENO On-line?
- Your transmitted information is secure when you report through the web-based notification system, which is located in a secure area of the CENO On-line website, accessible only through login using designated login ID and password. (Please see also A2 below.) The secure area supports the use of 256-bit Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption technology - an industry standard for encryption over the Internet to protect data. Our web servers are protected behind "firewalls" and our systems are monitored to prevent any unauthorized access.
- If you report through the email address shown in the website, we advise you to use digital signature and encryption to protect the patient's information from unauthorized interception or modification.
- What precautions should I take against fraudulent websites?
- Make sure you are connected to the official CENO On-line website at https://cdis.chp.gov.hk before keying in any confidential data
- Do not follow CENO On-line hyperlinks embedded in email
- Type https://cdis.chp.gov.hk directly on the browser address bar or access via a bookmark
- Check for the locked padlock symbol at the bottom right hand corner of your screen
- Change your login password regularly
- What security measures should I take in using CENO On-line?
- Keep your login ID and password in secrecy, do not disclose to a third party.
- Log out CENO On-line account and close the browser when not using CENO On-line.
- Do not log in CENO On-line from computers accessible to the public such as those in cybercafé.
- Ensure that the anti-virus program installed in the computer used for accessing CENO On-line is updated with the latest virus definitions. In addition, this computer should be installed with the latest security patches.
- What do I need when using digital certificate for submitting notifications and how to use it?
Last modified: 2022/06/24