Racial disparities in nationally notifiable diseases--United States, 2002

Infectious diseases are a major cause of morbidity, mortality, and disability in the United States and often affect racial/ethnic populations disproportionately. Eliminating racial disparities is a goal of many of the national health objectives for 2010. To estimate racial disparities in the incidence of nationally notifiable infectious diseases by race/ethnicity, CDC reviewed 2002 data from the Nationally Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS), collected through the National Electronic Telecommunications System for Surveillance (NETSS). This report summarizes the results of that analysis, which indicated that incidence rates were at least two times greater for blacks than whites for eight of 42 nationally notifiable diseases; however, substantial gaps exist in the reporting of racial/ethnic data for the 42 diseases, which accounted for approximately 1.3 million of the cases reported by NNDSS. Public health practitioners and policy makers might use these results to address disparities in disease rates among blacks and other racial/ethnic populations, but they also should work to close gaps in data reporting to accurately measure progress toward achieving the national health objectives.