US Disease Tracker Launches to Monitor Vaccine-Preventable Illnesses

A new online tool is tracking the spread of vaccine-preventable diseases (VPDs) across the United States, offering pharmacists, other health care providers, public health officials, and the public a more detailed and timely picture of disease activity at the state and substate level.¹

The US Disease Tracker was created and is run by Johns Hopkins University, the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, and the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists, in partnership with state and territorial public health agencies. It initially covers measles, invasive meningococcal disease, and pertussis, with plans to expand to additional VPDs.1

What the Tracker Does

The tracker builds on and complements the CDC’s national disease surveillance infrastructure by providing open-access data intended to be timely, detailed, and usable by broad audiences, including clinicians and policymakers. Data are presented in a standardized format that is comparable across participating jurisdictions, allowing for more accurate and uniform representation of national disease trends, and cases are reported by age group to show which populations are most affected.¹

"The COVID-19 pandemic elucidated both the value of timely and accessible public health data, as well as the importance of data standardization," Lauren Gardner, PhD, project co-lead and director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering, said in a news release.¹ "What makes this tracker unique is its foundation in standardized and validated public health data. The partnership enables a more complete and epidemiologically meaningful view of disease activity and transmission patterns, and a more reliable resource for public health professionals, policymakers, researchers, and the public."

To date, more than 25 jurisdictions have committed to joining the effort. Data from 10 participating states are currently reflected directly on the tracker, with more than 15 additional jurisdictions committed to begin participating in 2026. Data are voluntarily provided by the health departments of participating jurisdictions, while data for nonparticipating states are pulled from the CDC's National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System.¹

"By providing easy-to-understand maps, figures, and analyses of vaccine-preventable diseases in the United States, we hope to guide public health policy decisions and inform health care providers so they can better advise and care for their patients," William Moss, MD, MPH, project co-lead and senior advisor at the Johns Hopkins International Vaccine Access Center, said in the release.¹

What This Means for Pharmacists

The launch arrives amid a long-standing gap between vaccine availability and actual US immunization rates. Each year, an average of 90,000 Americans die of vaccine-preventable infections such as influenza, pneumococcal disease, and hepatitis B, and most had visited a health care provider in the year before their deaths without being vaccinated. Influenza and pneumonia together remain the fifth leading cause of death among Americans 65 years of age or older.²

Vaccine-preventable diseases tracked or trackable through tools like this one range from routine childhood and adult immunization targets—including measles, pertussis, meningococcal disease, influenza, hepatitis A and B, HPV, pneumococcal disease, and shingles—to vaccines recommended for travel or specific occupational groups, such as yellow fever, typhoid, and rabies.³

Pharmacists are positioned to act directly on the kind of localized case data the tracker provides. At least 36 states permit vaccine administration by pharmacists as part of the scope of pharmacy practice, whether through individual prescription orders or standing-order protocols.²

The CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has encouraged pharmacists, among other providers, to establish standing-order programs in settings such as long-term-care facilities, home health agencies, hospitals, clinics, workplaces, and managed care organizations.²

Beyond administration, pharmacists can use surveillance signals like those on the tracker to sharpen immunization screening in daily practice. Established screening approaches include occurrence screening tied to specific patient encounters, diagnosis screening for high-risk conditions, procedure screening ahead of surgeries or immunosuppressive therapy, periodic mass screening during outbreaks or seasonal campaigns, and occupational screening for health care personnel. A rise in local case counts—the kind of trend the tracker is designed to surface—could prompt pharmacists to intensify occurrence or periodic mass screening in the affected area.²

Internationally, pharmacy organizations have emphasized a similarly broad role. The International Pharmaceutical Federation has noted that pharmacists are ideally placed to support communities in protecting themselves against these diseases through awareness campaigns, education, vaccine administration and advocacy, and treatment optimization.⁴

"We have carefully designed this effort with our public health partners to maximize the data's usefulness while maintaining non-identifiability and data security,” Shaun Truelove, PhD, executive director of the Johns Hopkins International Vaccine Access Center, said in the news release. “We hope this can set the stage for a new paradigm for efficient and collaborative use of data for public health.”

REFERENCES

1. Johns Hopkins University. U.S. disease tracker launches to strengthen monitoring of vaccine-preventable diseases. News release. EurekAlert!. August 5, 2026. Accessed August 5, 2026. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1138840

2. American Society of Health-System Pharmacists. ASHP guidelines on the pharmacist's role in immunization. Am J Health-Syst Pharm. DOI 10.37573/9781585287048.077

3. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Vaccines and the diseases they prevent. Vaccines & Immunizations. CDC. Updated August 10, 2024. Accessed August 5, 2026. https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/by-disease/index.html

4. International Pharmaceutical Federation. Vaccine administration and prescribing by pharmacists. FIP. Accessed August 5, 2026. https://prevention.fip.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Vaccines-administration-and-prescribing.pdf