2015 waterborne disease outbreaks annual surveillance report

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (U.S). Division of Foodborne, Waterborne, and Environmental Diseases.
• Description:
  Each year, pathogens transmitted through water are estimated to cause 7.15 million cases of waterborne illness (95% credible interval [CrI], 3.9–12.0 million), 118,000 hospitalizations (95% CrI, 86,800–150,000) and 6,630 deaths (95% CrI, 4,520–8,870) in the United States (1). Summaries of waterborne disease outbreak data can inform prevention efforts for infectious and non-infectious etiologies.
  
  For an event to be defined as a waterborne disease outbreak, two or more cases of similar illness must be epidemiologically linked by location and time of exposure to contaminated water, contaminated aerosols, or gases volatilized from water. Cases are defined as lab-confirmed or probable using outbreak-specific case definitions. The epidemiologic evidence must implicate water exposure as the outbreak source and can be strengthened by environmental health and laboratory data.
  
  CDC has conducted national surveillance for waterborne disease outbreaks since 1971 via the Waterborne Disease and Outbreak Surveillance System (WBDOSS). Public health officials in U.S. jurisdictions (the 50 states, the District of Columbia, territories, and freely associated states) have voluntarily reported waterborne disease outbreaks through the web-based platform, National Outbreak Reporting System (NORS) since 2009. WBDOSS has captured data regarding outbreaks associated with recreational water, drinking water, and other or unknown types of exposures to water. Water from an identified source other than a recreational venue or drinking water system is referred to as “other water” (e.g., industrial water, flood waters). An outbreak with insufficient data to link the outbreak to one specific source is reported as an unknown water exposure. Individual outbreaks associated with multiple types of water exposures are also reported as unknown.
  
  Agencies use a standard form [PDF – 12 pages] to report waterborne disease outbreaks. Data collected include the implicated outbreak water exposure (recreational, drinking, other, or unknown water); earliest illness onset date; etiology; implicated recreational water venue or drinking water system; the setting of exposure (e.g., a hotel, apartment complex, hospital); relevant epidemiologic data; and contributing factors. NORS data are available for download and visualization using the NORS Dashboard, a web-based tool for searching and accessing outbreak data.
  
  This summary includes waterborne disease outbreaks reported through NORS as of March 23, 2022, and for which the earliest illness onset was in 2015. Outbreak reports went through a standardized data cleaning process, a collaboration between CDC and reporting jurisdictions. Agencies can submit new outbreak reports and revise or delete reports as additional data become available. Thus, data reported in future analyses for 2015 might differ from the numbers presented here.
  
  Suggested citation: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Waterborne Disease and Outbreak Surveillance System (WBDOSS) Summary Report, United States, 2015. Atlanta, Georgia: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, CDC, 2022.
  
  
• Content Notes:
  Summary -- Background -- Methods -- Findings -- All water exposures -- Recreational water exposures -- Drinking water exposures -- Other exposures to water -- Unknown exposures to water -- Limitations -- Conclusions -- Acknowledgements -- References -- Suggested Citation.
• Subjects:
  Disease Outbreaks Drinking Water Humans Population Surveillance Water Waterborne Diseases
• Document Type:
  Webpage
• Place as Subject:
  United States
• Collection(s):
  Stephen B. Thacker CDC Library
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:326ab885cd0a7265b724000947c6defca87ecc0b3bed283e263c4cb316c44167
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/126288/cdc_126288_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 5.08 MB ]