National Center for Zoonotic, Vector-Borne, & Enteric Diseases (NCZVED)

The mission of the National Center for Zoonotic, Vector-Borne, and Enteric Diseases (NCZVED) is to maximize public health and safety nationally and internationally through the prevention and control of disease, disability, and death caused by zoonotic, vector-borne, foodborne, waterborne, mycotic, and related infections. In carrying out its mission, NCZVED provides leadership, expertise, and service in laboratory and epidemiological science, bioterrorism preparedness, applied research, disease surveillance, outbreak response, policy development, health communication, education and training, and program implementation and evaluation.

NCZVED’s Water-Related Activities

Division of Foodborne, Bacterial & Mycotic Diseases

• Developing, evaluating, and helping to implement and promote novel methods for household water treatment and improved hygiene (Safe Water System) in developing countries around the world.
  • CDC at Work: Safe Water school interventions in Kenya save lives   (PDF, 1.4 mb, 1 page)
• Providing epidemic aid, surveillance, and consultation on the control of foodborne and waterborne outbreaks of acute gastrointestinal illness.
• Providing surveillance activities for agents of selected foodborne, waterborne, and other bacterial enteric diseases.
• Developing and implementing prevention strategies for foodborne and waterborne diseases in consultation with regulatory agencies and the food industry.
• Conducting lab-based disease surveillance of foodborne and diarrheal diseases.
• Performing studies to determine host-parasite factors related to foodborne, waterborne, and other bacterial enteric diseases.

Division of Parasitic Diseases

• Building national surveillance capacity for waterborne disease and outbreaks
  • Operating the national Waterborne Disease and Outbreak Surveillance System (WBDOSS) to collect data on waterborne disease and outbreaks in the U.S.
  • Reporting national notifiable disease surveillance data for cryptosporidiosis and giardiasis.
  • Collecting and reporting surveillance data for free-living amoebae infections (Naegleria, Balamuthia, Acanthamoeba).
  • Building CryptoNet, a national sequence-based molecular surveillance system for understanding U.S. transmission of cryptosporidiosis.
• Improving parasitic and waterborne outbreak investigations
  • Providing outbreak and consultative assistance.
  • Identifying and tracking the causes and sources of parasitic and waterborne disease.
  • Developing tools and training to improve waterborne disease outbreak investigations.
• Developing and improving access to water-related health and prevention information
  • Coordinating information throughout CDC to create, maintain, and improve access to water, sanitation, and hygiene-related information via the CDC Healthy Water website.
  • Developing health promotion materials to reduce the spread of parasitic and waterborne diseases.
  • Developing recommendations for reducing the spread of parasitic and waterborne disease
    • Creating and operating CDC’s Healthy Swimming Program to prevent the spread of infectious diseases and contaminants at pools, lakes, rivers, and oceans
      • CDC at Work: Ensuring Healthy Swimming for generations to come   (PDF, 1.14 mb, 1 page)
    • Developing guidance for reducing the risk of cryptosporidiosis outbreaks expanding into community-wide outbreaks
• Collecting data to better define the magnitude, burden, and occurrence of parasitic and waterborne disease
  • Analyzing clinical and environmental samples to understand the spread of parasitic pathogens
  • Identifying risk factors important for the spread of parasitic and waterborne diseases
  • Developing estimates of how much waterborne disease occurs in the U.S.
  • Developing economic estimates for the cost of waterborne disease in the U.S.
  • Using health data to validate the use of rapid fecal indicator tests for maintaining health and water quality at freshwater and marine beaches (collaboration with EPA’s National Epidemiological and Environmental Assessment of Recreational Water)
  • Assessing the health effects of backcountry water use in national parks (collaboration with the National Park Service)
  • Investigating the role of storm water and combined sewer overflows in the population dynamics of mosquitoes spreading vector-borne pathogens such as West Nile virus and the spatial relationship of overflows to infected humans, reservoirs and vectors
• Evaluating new or existing public health interventions aimed at reducing the spread of parasitic and waterborne diseases
  • Partnering with the Carter Center to eliminate Guinea worm disease throughout the world in the Guinea Worm Eradication Program.
  • Developing water/sanitation/hygiene (WASH) intervention assessment tools to understand sustainability issues related to WASH and their impact on diarrheal illness, intestinal worms, and Guinea worm.
  • Partnering on developing the national Model Aquatic Health Code effort to improve regulation guiding swimming pool design, operation, and maintenance
• Developing and improving environmental sampling methods and detection tests for parasitic or waterborne pathogens in water, wastewater, stormwater, and soil
  • Developing appropriate methods for rapidly concentrating large volumes of water for pathogen detection
  • Developing rapid and appropriate detection methods for pathogens found in clinical specimens and environmental samples such as water and soil
    • Developing molecular detection methods for parasitic waterborne pathogens and fecal contamination indicators
    • Developing molecular typing methods for parasitic waterborne pathogens
    • Developing novel or improved serologic tests for parasitic waterborne pathogens
• Developing and testing performance of disinfection and filtration systems for waterborne pathogen inactivation or removal
  • Developing recommendations for treating swimming pools following contamination
  • Testing the disinfectant sensitivity of waterborne pathogens in drinking and recreational water

Division of Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases

• Conducting surveillance, investigations, and studies of vector-borne viral and bacterial diseases (many insect vectors are impacted by water quality/quantity and sanitation conditions)
• Working to develop effective methods and strategies for diagnosis, prevention, and control of vector-borne viral and bacterial diseases (many insect vectors are impacted by water quality/quantity and sanitation conditions)
• Evaluating the impact of standing water on the risk of mosquito-transmitted diseases following natural disasters, such as floods and hurricanes
• Developing protocols to monitor and control the dengue vector mosquitoes produced from potable water storage containers

• Please note: Some of these publications are available for download only as *.pdf files. These files require Adobe Acrobat Reader in order to be viewed. Please review the information on downloading and using Acrobat Reader software.