A new website will track the spread of vaccine-preventable diseases across the United States to provide reliable and visual information about current disease trends, according to an Aug. 5 announcement.
The U.S. Disease Tracker is created and operated by Johns Hopkins University, the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, and the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists, in partnership with state and territorial public health agencies. The tracker will initially monitor cases of measles, meningitis, and pertussis (whooping cough), with plans to expand coverage to other vaccine-preventable diseases.
The platform builds on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's national disease surveillance infrastructure by offering open access data that is timely, detailed, and designed for broad audiences. "The COVID-19 pandemic elucidated both the value of timely and accessible public health data, as well as the importance of data standardization," said project co-lead Lauren Gardner, director of Johns Hopkins' Center for Systems Science and Engineering. "What makes this tracker unique is its foundation in standardized and validated public health data. The partnership enables a more complete and epidemiologically meaningful view of disease activity and transmission patterns, and a more reliable resource for public health professionals, policymakers, researchers, and the public."
The tracker presents data in a standardized format that allows comparability across participating jurisdictions for a more accurate representation of national disease trends. Cases are tracked at both state and sub-state levels with detailed visualizations designed to show trends over time across different regions in the country. Additionally, cases are reported by age group to highlight which populations are most affected.
To date, over 25 jurisdictions have committed to joining this effort; currently, data from 10 participating states are included on the tracker while more than 15 additional jurisdictions plan to participate in 2026. Data for participating states comes directly from their health departments; non-participating states' information is sourced from the CDC's National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System.
"We have carefully designed this effort with our public health partners to maximize the data's usefulness while maintaining non-identifiability and data security. We hope this can set the stage for a new paradigm for efficient and collaborative use of data for public health," said project co-lead Shaun Truelove, executive director of Johns Hopkins' International Vaccine Access Center.
