CDC Wastewater Surveillance Data for RSV Infections

CDC National Wastewater Surveillance System (NWSS) provides a complete time history of Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) wastewater sample data from US sampling locations. Data is contributed by state and local health departments, CDC's contract with Verily, and the WastewaterSCAN partnership. The dataset is updated weekly on Fridays.

Use Cases

• Model RSV community prevalence trends over time using `pcr_target_avg_conc_lin` and `sample_collect_date`.
• Analyze geographic variation in RSV levels across states and counties using `state_territory`, `county_fips`, and concentration metrics.
• Assess data quality and methodological consistency by comparing results from different `source` designations and `major_lab_method`.
• Estimate population-level exposure by correlating `pcr_target_flowpop_lin` with `population_served` for specific `sample_location` entries.

Strengths

• Data is updated weekly, providing near-real-time surveillance.
• Includes multiple concentration metrics and methodological details across 30+ columns.
• Aggregates data from three distinct authoritative sources: state health departments, CDC-Verily, and WastewaterSCAN.

Limitations

• Specific row count and historical time range are unknown, limiting assessment of dataset scale.
• Sample data is unavailable, preventing verification of data distributions and value formats.

Provenance

Source

CDC National Wastewater Surveillance System (NWSS), with contributions from state/territory health departments, CDC-Verily, and WastewaterSCAN.

Collection Method

Wastewater sample collection and PCR-based testing for RSV, with calculated concentration metrics.

Freshness

Updated weekly on Fridays.

Geography

United States, with state and county-level data (`state_territory`, `counties_served`).