National Outbreak Reporting System
The National Outbreak Reporting System is an electronic, web-accessible system designed to improve the quality, quantity, and availability of data for waterborne, foodborne, enteric person-to-person, and enteric zoonotic disease outbreaks in the United States.
NORS launched in 2009 for use by staff working within public health departments in individual states, territories, and the Freely Associated States. Health departments are responsible for determining which staff members have access to NORS.
NORS replaced the electronic Foodborne Outbreak Reporting System - the primary tool for reporting foodborne disease outbreaks to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention since 2001. NORS also replaced the paper-based reporting system used during 1971-2008 to report waterborne disease outbreaks to the Waterborne Disease and Outbreak Reporting System. The transition to electronic waterborne disease outbreak reporting is in large part a response to the position statement titled "."
Separate sections in NORS for enteric person-to-person and animal-to-person disease outbreak reports are intended to enhance the information available to quantify, describe and understand these types of outbreaks at a national level.
