U.S. Disease Tracker Launches to Strengthen Monitoring of Vaccine-Preventable Diseases

August 06, 2026

ARLINGTON, VA — A new website will track the spread of vaccine-preventable diseases across the United States to offer the public, media, health care providers, and policymakers reliable and visual information about infectious disease trends.

The U.S. Disease Tracker, created and run by the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO), Johns Hopkins University, and the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists, in partnership with state and territorial public health agencies, will initially monitor cases of measles, invasive meningococcal disease, and pertussis (also known as whooping cough), and later expand to include other vaccine-preventable diseases.

The tracker builds on and complements the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s national disease surveillance infrastructure by offering open-access data that are timely, detailed, and designed for broad audiences. 

"Public health readiness depends on accurate, actionable, and timely information," says ASTHO Chief Executive Officer Joseph Kanter, MD, MPH. "The U.S. Disease Tracker represents a notable leap forward in how we monitor infectious diseases. By providing public health departments with transparent, unified frameworks, this repository helps bridge the gap between localized and national insights. Ultimately, it reduces the technical burden on health departments, provides access to real-time validated data, and democratizes public access to this vital information."

"Public health relies on accurate, timely, and actionable data to protect communities," says ASTHO President and Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Public Health Manisha Juthani, MD. "The U.S. Disease Tracker will help modernize our nation's health surveillance infrastructure. By standardizing data for critical infectious diseases—ranging from measles and pertussis to pediatric influenza mortality—this tool empowers state and territorial health departments to collaborate more effectively."

The tracker, which will be updated weekly, presents and displays data in a standardized format that is comparable across the participating jurisdictions, enabling more accurate and uniform representation of national disease trends.

Cases are tracked at the state and substate level where data are available, with detailed visualizations designed to capture disease trends across the U.S. and over time. 

Cases are additionally reported by age group to illustrate the most affected populations. Currently, updates from 10 states are reflected on the tracker, with more than 25 committed to joining the effort in coming months. 

Data for the tracker are voluntarily provided by the health departments of participating jurisdictions. For nonparticipating states, data come from the CDC’s National Notifiable Disease Surveillance System.

Visit the U.S. Disease Tracker.

 

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ASTHO is the national nonprofit organization representing the public health agencies of the United States, the U.S. territories and freely associated states, and Washington, D.C., as well as the more than 100,000 public health professionals these agencies employ. ASTHO members, the chief health officials of these jurisdictions, are dedicated to formulating and influencing sound public health policy and to ensuring excellence in public health practice.