All the infectious diseases that have been reported in Merseyside recently

The last few weeks have seen Merseyside become the centre of the coronavirus quarantine.

But despite all the attention, coronavirus isn't the only illness that public health bosses are keeping a close eye on.

Some illnesses have to be reported to the local authority so the details can be released by Public Health England.

Most of these infectious diseases are rarely diagnosed, but there can be a handful of cases of measles and mumps reported some areas.

A measles vaccination (PA)

Every week Public Health England reveal how many infectious diseases were diagnosed and the local authority area where they were reported.

The data for Merseyside in January shows how many instances of diseases like tuberculosis, mumps and whooping cough were diagnosed.

It also includes cases of food poisoning that were formally reported to the local authority.

Public Health England data shows that in the last month, Merseyside saw 51 individual cases of mumps and five cases of mumps.

There wee also 53 cases of scarlet fever and eight cases of whooping cough.

Four separate cases of tuberculosis in Merseyside were reported to local authorities, with three 'formal' cases of food poisoning also needing to be reported.

The majority of tuberculosis cases were reported in Wirral, with most of the scarlet fever cases being noted in Liverpool.

The report states that registered medical professionals in England and Wales have a duty to notify the local authority of suspected cases of infectious diseases.

These illnesses include anthrax poisoning, botulism, diptheria, legionnaires disease, rabies, SARS and smallpox.