71 - Public Health Surveillance

Abstract: Vector-borne diseases (VBDs) have increased significantly in the United States over the last 20 years, with the number of annual reported cases doubling from 2003 to 2023. The increase in reported cases is multifaceted, reflecting features such as longer transmission seasons and an expansion in geographic range for some VBDs. Additional contributing factors include the increase in numbers of travel associated cases, the introduction of exotic pathogens via global travel, and the establishment of known vector species in new geographic locations, influenced in part by environmental and sociologic change, and other influencers. CDC recently launched an agency-wide effort to transform public health data management and improve web-based data visualization tools so that national VBD data is more easily accessed and understood. A number of new tools and resources are now available to view how disease occurrence patterns are changing both spatially and temporally based on reported case data that are maintained by CDC’s Division of Vector-Borne Diseases.