Summary of Notifiable Diseases

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United States 1999

Data Sources

Provisional data concerning the reported occurrence of notifiable diseases are published weekly in the MMWR. After each reporting year, staff in state health departments finalize reports of cases for that year with local or county health departments and reconcile the data with reports previously sent to CDC throughout the year. These data are compiled in final form in the Summary.

Notifiable disease reports are the authoritative and archival counts of cases. They must be approved by the appropriate epidemiologist from each submitting state or territory before being published in the Summary. Although useful for detailed epidemiologic analyses, data published in CDC Surveillance Summaries or other surveillance reports produced by CDC programs can be different from data reported in the annual summary because of differences in the timing of reports, the source of the data, and the case definitions.

Data in the Summary were derived primarily from reports transmitted to the Division of Public Health Surveillance and Informatics, Epidemiology Program Office, CDC, from health departments in the 50 states, five territories, New York City, and the District of Columbia through the National Electronic Telecommunications System for Surveillance (NETSS). More information regarding NETSS and notifiable diseases, including case definitions for these conditions, is available on the Internet at <http://www.cdc.gov/ncphi/disss/phs.htm>. Policies for reporting notifiable disease cases can vary by disease or reporting jurisdiction, depending on case status classification (i.e., confirmed, probable, or suspect).

Final data for selected diseases (presented in Parts 1, 2, and 3) are from the surveillance records of the CDC programs listed below. Requests for further information regarding these data should be directed to the appropriate program.

National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS)
Office of Vital and Health Statistics Systems (deaths from selected notifiable diseases).

National Center for Infectious Diseases (NCID)
Division of Bacterial and Mycotic Diseases (toxic-shock syndrome; streptococcal disease, invasive, group A; streptococcal toxic-shock syndrome; and laboratory data regarding botulism, Escherichia coli O157:H7, salmonellosis, and shigellosis).

Division of Viral and Rickettsial Diseases (animal rabies, hantavirus pulmonary syndrome).

National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention (NCHSTP)
Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention—Surveillance and Epidemiology (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome [AIDS]).

Division of Sexually Transmitted Diseases Prevention (chancroid, chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis).

Division of Tuberculosis Elimination (tuberculosis).

National Immunization Program (NIP)
Epidemiology and Surveillance Division (poliomyelitis; Haemophilus influenzae, invasive disease, type B; and varicella).

Disease totals for the United States, unless otherwise stated, do not include data for American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, or the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI).

Population estimates for the states are from the July 1, 1999, estimates by the U.S. Department of Commerce, Economics, and Statistics Administration, Bureau of the Census, Population Division, Population Distribution Branch, Internet press release ST-99-1, December 29, 1999. * Population numbers for territories are 1998 estimates from Bureau of the Census press release PR-99-1* and CB98-219.** More information regarding census estimates is available at <http://www.census.gov/>.

Rates in the Summary are presented as incidence rates per 100,000 population, based on data for the U.S. total-resident population. However, population data from states in which diseases were not notifiable or disease data were not available were excluded from rate calculations.

* Available at <http://www.census.gov/population/estimates/state/st-99-1.txt>. Accessed January 29, 2001.

** Available at <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/cb98-219.html>. Accessed January 29, 2001.

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