National Outbreak Reporting System (NORS, Water)

The National Outbreak Reporting System (NORS) supports outbreak reporting by partners in state, local, and territorial public health agencies.

NORS is a web-based platform designed to support reporting of waterborne, foodborne, enteric person-to-person, and animal contact-associated disease outbreaks to CDC.

NORS launched in 2009 following a four-year commitment by CDC to the planning, development, and launch phases of the project. CDC developed NORS for waterborne disease outbreak reporting in collaboration with the Council for State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to improve the quality, quantity, and availability of data submitted to the Waterborne Disease and Outbreak Reporting System (WBDOSS) .

NORS represents an important shift in national waterborne disease outbreak reporting—a transition from paper-based reporting to electronic reporting of outbreak data. Electronic reporting improves the ability to describe and prevent waterborne disease outbreaks at national and state levels through the collection of detailed information about deficiencies and risk factors associated with water exposure.

NORS data are more readily available to state health officials for review and analysis. Waterborne disease outbreak investigators, researchers, and health policy makers are using NORS data to evaluate and implement effective measures designed to prevent illness and reduce the burden of waterborne disease in the U.S.

Please visit CDC’s National Outbreak Reporting System (NORS) website. Public health professionals at state and local health departments who report waterborne disease outbreaks to CDC can access additional resources for NORS:

• Training Materials: Waterborne
• Forms & Guidance: Waterborne Disease Outbreaks
• Resources

State and local health departments are asked to review the training and guidance materials on the NORS website before they begin reporting waterborne or other disease outbreaks in NORS.