Unofficial CDC MCP Server

A comprehensive MCP (Model Context Protocol) server providing access to CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) public health data through the Socrata Open Data API (SODA).

Total Datasets: 73 (no authentication required) Surveillance Systems: 18 different CDC programs Health Measures: 100+ indicators across chronic disease, behavioral risk, environmental health, outbreak detection, vaccination, and drug overdose

Features

• TypeScript Implementation: Built with @modelcontextprotocol/sdk
• Comprehensive Coverage: 73 public datasets across 18 surveillance systems
• Unified Interface: Single tool with 18 specialized methods
• Real-Time Surveillance: NNDSS outbreak detection for 50+ notifiable diseases
• COVID-19 Vaccination: County-level tracking with equity metrics (SVI, urban/rural)
• Drug Overdose Crisis: Real-time monitoring with drug-specific tracking (fentanyl, opioids)
• Rate Limiting: Built-in rate limiting (500ms delay) to respect API quotas
• App Token Support: Enhanced rate limits (1,000 requests/hour) with valid app token
• Flexible Querying: Support for filtering, pagination, and custom SoQL queries
• 100% Public Data: All datasets accessible without authentication

Available Data Sources

Dataset Coverage (73 Total)

Category	Datasets	Key Features
PLACES	5	County, place, tract, ZCTA (40+ health measures)
BRFSS	7	Comprehensive 2011-present + historical 1995-2010
YRBSS	2	Youth health surveillance (substance use, mental health)
Respiratory	2	Combined RSV/COVID/Flu + RSV-specific
Vaccination	5	Teen, pregnant, kindergarten, flu all ages, RSV
Vital Statistics	5	Birth, death, maternal, infant statistics
Environmental	2	Air quality, water fluoridation
Tobacco	6	Economic impact + 5 policy types
Injury	2	TBI surveillance, alcohol-impaired driving
Infectious Disease	2	Pneumococcal, foodborne/waterborne
Maternal-Child	3	Breastfeeding, PRAMS, birth statistics
Oral/Vision	2	NOHSS oral health, BRFSS vision
Nutrition	3	Behavioral, policy, youth-specific
Disease-Specific	4	Heart disease, diabetes, cancer, COVID
Historical	1	Pre-ACA health care access (1995-2010)
NNDSS	14	Real-time outbreak detection (50+ notifiable diseases)
COVID-19 Vaccination	4	County-level tracking with equity metrics
Drug Overdose	6	Provisional + finalized overdose data by drug type

Usage

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cdc-mcp-server": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/path/to/cdc-mcp-server/build/index.js"],
      "env": {
        "CDC_APP_TOKEN": "your_app_token_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Note: The CDC_APP_TOKEN environment variable is optional but recommended for enhanced rate limits (1,000 req/hour vs shared pool).

MCP Methods

Core Methods (5)

1. list_datasets

List all 53 available CDC datasets.

{
  "method": "list_datasets"
}

2. get_places_data

Get PLACES local disease prevalence data (40+ health measures).

Parameters:

• geography_level: "county", "place", "tract", "zcta" (default: "county")
• year: "2023", "2024" (default: "2024")
• state: State abbreviation (e.g., "CA", "TX")
• measure_id: Disease measure (e.g., "DIABETES", "OBESITY", "CHD")
• location: Specific location name
• limit: Max results (default: 100)
• offset: Pagination offset (default: 0)

Example:

{
  "method": "get_places_data",
  "geography_level": "county",
  "year": "2024",
  "state": "CA",
  "measure_id": "DIABETES"
}

3. get_brfss_data

Get BRFSS behavioral risk factor data.

Parameters:

• dataset_type: "obesity_national", "obesity_state", "diabetes", "asthma"
• year: Specific year
• state: State abbreviation
• limit, offset: Pagination

Example:

{
  "method": "get_brfss_data",
  "dataset_type": "diabetes",
  "year": 2023,
  "state": "NY"
}

4. search_dataset

Generic search across any CDC dataset with custom SoQL queries.

Parameters:

• dataset_name: Dataset identifier (required)
• select_fields: Fields to return
• where_clause: SoQL WHERE clause
• order_by: Sort field
• limit, offset: Pagination

Example:

{
  "method": "search_dataset",
  "dataset_name": "breastfeeding_nis",
  "where_clause": "state='Texas'",
  "limit": 100
}

5. get_available_measures

List all available measures for a specific dataset.

Example:

{
  "method": "get_available_measures",
  "dataset_name": "places_county_2024"
}

---

Tier 1 Methods: High-Priority Health Surveillance (7)

6. get_yrbss_data

Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance (substance use, mental health, violence).

Parameters:

• state: State abbreviation
• topic: "substance_use", "mental_health", "violence", "sexual_behaviors", "nutrition", "physical_activity"
• year: Survey year
• limit, offset: Pagination

Example:

{
  "method": "get_yrbss_data",
  "state": "CA",
  "topic": "mental_health",
  "year": 2023
}

7. get_respiratory_surveillance

Combined RSV/COVID-19/Flu hospitalization surveillance.

Parameters:

• virus: "rsv", "covid", "flu", "combined" (default: "combined")
• state: Jurisdiction
• year: Year filter
• limit, offset: Pagination

Example:

{
  "method": "get_respiratory_surveillance",
  "virus": "rsv",
  "state": "NY",
  "year": 2024
}

8. get_vaccination_coverage

Vaccination rates by age group.

Parameters:

• age_group: "teen", "pregnant", "kindergarten" (required)
• state: State abbreviation
• vaccine_type: "hpv", "tdap", "menacwy", "flu"
• year: Survey year
• limit, offset: Pagination

Example:

{
  "method": "get_vaccination_coverage",
  "age_group": "teen",
  "state": "TX",
  "vaccine_type": "hpv",
  "year": 2023
}

9. get_birth_statistics

Birth rates and birth outcome indicators.

Parameters:

• indicator: "birth_rate", "preterm", "cesarean", "low_birth_weight"
• state: Jurisdiction
• year: Year filter
• limit, offset: Pagination

Example:

{
  "method": "get_birth_statistics",
  "indicator": "preterm",
  "state": "CA",
  "year": 2024
}

10. get_environmental_health

Air quality measures with health tracking.

Parameters:

• pollutant: "pm25", "ozone", "combined" (default: "combined")
• state: State filter
• county: County name
• year: Year filter
• limit, offset: Pagination

Example:

{
  "method": "get_environmental_health",
  "pollutant": "pm25",
  "county": "Los Angeles",
  "year": 2023
}

11. get_tobacco_impact

Smoking-attributable mortality, morbidity, and economic costs.

Parameters:

• impact_type: "mortality", "morbidity", "economic_cost"
• state: State abbreviation
• year: Year filter
• limit, offset: Pagination

Example:

{
  "method": "get_tobacco_impact",
  "impact_type": "economic_cost",
  "state": "OH",
  "year": 2022
}

12. get_oral_vision_health

Oral and vision health surveillance.

Parameters:

• health_domain: "oral", "vision" (required)
• state: State abbreviation
• year: Year filter
• limit, offset: Pagination

Example:

{
  "method": "get_oral_vision_health",
  "health_domain": "oral",
  "state": "FL",
  "year": 2023
}

---

Tier 2 Methods: Policy-Relevant & Niche Specializations (3)

13. get_injury_surveillance

TBI surveillance - emergency visits, hospitalizations, deaths by mechanism.

Parameters:

• injury_type: "tbi", "motor_vehicle", "all" (default: "tbi")
• state: State abbreviation
• mechanism: "fall", "motor_vehicle", "assault", "sports", "all"
• year: Year filter
• limit, offset: Pagination

Example:

{
  "method": "get_injury_surveillance",
  "injury_type": "tbi",
  "mechanism": "fall",
  "state": "FL",
  "year": 2022
}

14. get_tobacco_policy

Tobacco control policy tracking (5 policy types supported).

Parameters:

• policy_type: "smokefree_air", "medicaid_cessation", "licensure", "tax", "ecigarette" (required)
• state: State abbreviation
• venue: "workplace", "restaurant", "bar", "government", "school", "all" (for smokefree_air only)
• year: Year filter
• limit, offset: Pagination

Examples:

Smokefree air legislation:

{
  "method": "get_tobacco_policy",
  "policy_type": "smokefree_air",
  "venue": "restaurant",
  "state": "CA"
}

Tobacco tax legislation:

{
  "method": "get_tobacco_policy",
  "policy_type": "tax",
  "state": "NY",
  "year": 2023
}

E-cigarette regulation:

{
  "method": "get_tobacco_policy",
  "policy_type": "ecigarette",
  "state": "MA"
}

15. get_infectious_disease

Infectious disease surveillance (pneumococcal, foodborne, waterborne).

Parameters:

• disease: "pneumococcal", "foodborne", "waterborne" (required)
• state: State abbreviation
• serotype: Pneumococcal serotype filter (e.g., "19A", "3")
• pathogen: Pathogen name for foodborne/waterborne (e.g., "Salmonella", "E. coli")
• year: Year filter
• limit, offset: Pagination

Examples:

Pneumococcal disease by serotype:

{
  "method": "get_infectious_disease",
  "disease": "pneumococcal",
  "serotype": "19A",
  "year": 2023
}

Foodborne outbreaks:

{
  "method": "get_infectious_disease",
  "disease": "foodborne",
  "pathogen": "Salmonella",
  "state": "TX"
}

---

Phase 4 Methods: Critical Surveillance Gaps (3)

16. get_nndss_surveillance

National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System - real-time outbreak detection for 50+ diseases.

Parameters:

• nndss_disease: "arboviral", "hepatitis", "tuberculosis", "rubella", "pertussis", "haemophilus", "qfever", "botulism", "all" (default: "all")
• year: Year filter (for historical TB data: 2014-2019)
• state: State abbreviation
• limit, offset: Pagination

Examples:

Arboviral disease surveillance:

{
  "method": "get_nndss_surveillance",
  "nndss_disease": "arboviral",
  "state": "FL",
  "year": "2024"
}

Historical tuberculosis data:

{
  "method": "get_nndss_surveillance",
  "nndss_disease": "tuberculosis",
  "year": "2019",
  "state": "CA"
}

17. get_covid_vaccination

COVID-19 vaccination tracking with equity metrics.

Parameters:

• vax_geography: "national", "state", "county" (default: "state")
• state: State abbreviation
• county: County name
• equity_metrics: Include SVI and urban/rural classification (boolean)
• limit, offset: Pagination

Examples:

State-level vaccination rates:

{
  "method": "get_covid_vaccination",
  "vax_geography": "state",
  "state": "TX"
}

County-level with equity metrics:

{
  "method": "get_covid_vaccination",
  "vax_geography": "county",
  "state": "NY",
  "county": "New York",
  "equity_metrics": true
}

18. get_overdose_surveillance

Drug overdose crisis monitoring with drug-specific tracking.

Parameters:

• overdose_geography: "national", "state", "county" (default: "state")
• drug_type: "opioid", "fentanyl", "heroin", "cocaine", "methamphetamine", "all" (default: "all")
• provisional: Use provisional data (true) or finalized (false) - default: true
• state: State abbreviation
• county: County name
• limit, offset: Pagination

Examples:

Fentanyl overdoses by state:

{
  "method": "get_overdose_surveillance",
  "overdose_geography": "state",
  "drug_type": "fentanyl",
  "state": "OH",
  "provisional": true
}

County-level opioid deaths:

{
  "method": "get_overdose_surveillance",
  "overdose_geography": "county",
  "drug_type": "opioid",
  "county": "Alameda",
  "state": "CA"
}

All overdoses (finalized data):

{
  "method": "get_overdose_surveillance",
  "overdose_geography": "national",
  "drug_type": "all",
  "provisional": false
}

---

Common PLACES Measure IDs

Chronic Diseases

• DIABETES: Diagnosed diabetes
• OBESITY: Adult obesity (BMI ≥30)
• CHD: Coronary heart disease
• COPD: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
• ASTHMA: Current asthma
• STROKE: Stroke
• BPHIGH: High blood pressure
• CANCER: Cancer (excluding skin cancer)
• KIDNEY: Chronic kidney disease
• ARTHRITIS: Arthritis

Mental Health

• DEPRESSION: Depression
• MHLTH: Mental health not good for ≥14 days

Prevention

• DENTAL: Annual dental visit
• ACCESS2: Lack of health insurance (adults <65)
• CHECKUP: No annual checkup
• CHOLSCREEN: Cholesterol screening
• CERVICAL: Cervical cancer screening
• COLON_SCREEN: Colorectal cancer screening
• MAMMOUSE: Mammography

Risk Factors

• CSMOKING: Current smoking
• BINGE: Binge drinking
• LPA: No leisure-time physical activity
• SLEEP: Sleep <7 hours

Dataset Reference

Complete Dataset List (73)

<details> <summary>Click to expand full dataset list</summary>

PLACES (5 datasets):

• places_county_2024 - County-level 2024
• places_county_2023 - County-level 2023
• places_place_2024 - City/town-level 2024
• places_tract_2024 - Census tract-level 2024
• places_zcta_2024 - ZIP code-level 2024

BRFSS (7 datasets):

• brfss_comprehensive - 2011-present (30+ measures)
• brfss_obesity_national - National obesity trends
• brfss_obesity_state - State obesity prevalence
• brfss_diabetes - Diabetes prevalence
• brfss_asthma - Asthma prevalence
• brfss_smart_county - Metropolitan county-level
• brfss_healthcare_access_historical - 1995-2010

Youth Health (2 datasets):

• yrbss_high_school - Youth risk behaviors
• youth_nutrition_activity - Youth nutrition/activity

Respiratory (2 datasets):

• respiratory_combined - RSV/COVID/Flu combined
• rsv_hospitalizations - RSV-specific

Vaccination (5 datasets):

• teen_vaccinations - HPV, Tdap, MenACWY
• flu_vaccination_coverage - All ages 6+ months
• pregnant_vaccinations - Flu, Tdap during pregnancy
• kindergarten_vaccinations - School entry rates

Vital Statistics (5 datasets):

• vsrr_birth_quarterly - Birth indicators
• birth_rates_age - Age-specific fertility
• vsrr_quarterly_mortality - Mortality estimates
• vsrr_maternal_mortality - Maternal deaths
• vsrr_infant_mortality - Infant mortality

Environmental (2 datasets):

• air_quality_tracking - PM2.5, ozone
• water_fluoridation - Fluoridation statistics

Tobacco (6 datasets):

• sammec_smoking_impact - Economic costs
• smokefree_air_legislation - Smokefree laws
• medicaid_cessation_coverage - Cessation coverage
• tobacco_licensure - Retailer licensure
• tobacco_tax - Tax legislation
• ecigarette_legislation - E-cigarette regulation

Injury (2 datasets):

• tbi_surveillance - TBI surveillance
• alcohol_impaired_driving - Drunk driving deaths

Infectious Disease (2 datasets):

• pneumococcal_disease - 25-year serotype data
• foodborne_outbreaks - Foodborne/waterborne

Maternal-Child (3 datasets):

• breastfeeding_nis - Breastfeeding rates
• pramstat_2009 - PRAMS 2009

Oral/Vision (2 datasets):

• oral_health_indicators - NOHSS
• vision_health - BRFSS vision module

Nutrition (3 datasets):

• nutrition_obesity - Behavioral
• nutrition_policy_environmental - Policy/environmental
• nutrition_commute_patterns - Commuting

Disease-Specific (4 datasets):

• heart_disease_mortality - Heart disease
• diabetes_indicators - Diabetes surveillance
• cancer_incidence - Cancer statistics
• covid_cases - COVID-19

Historical (1 dataset):

• Already listed under BRFSS

NNDSS - National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance (14 datasets):

• nndss_arboviral - Arboviral diseases (Zika, West Nile, etc.)
• nndss_hepatitis - Viral hepatitis A, B, C
• nndss_tuberculosis - Current TB surveillance
• nndss_rubella - Rubella and congenital rubella
• nndss_pertussis - Whooping cough surveillance
• nndss_haemophilus - Haemophilus influenzae disease
• nndss_qfever - Q fever surveillance
• nndss_botulism - Botulism surveillance
• nndss_tb_2019 - Historical TB 2019
• nndss_tb_2018 - Historical TB 2018
• nndss_tb_2017 - Historical TB 2017
• nndss_tb_2016 - Historical TB 2016
• nndss_tb_2015 - Historical TB 2015
• nndss_tb_2014 - Historical TB 2014

COVID-19 Vaccination (4 datasets):

• covid_vax_jurisdiction - State/territory vaccination rates
• covid_vax_county - County-level vaccination coverage
• covid_vax_respiratory_weekly - Weekly respiratory virus vaccination
• covid_vax_age_trends - Age-stratified vaccination trends

Drug Overdose Surveillance (6 datasets):

• overdose_provisional_state - Provisional state-level overdose deaths
• overdose_county - County-level overdose mortality
• overdose_by_drug - Drug-specific overdose deaths
• overdose_demographics - Demographic-stratified overdose data
• overdose_nowcast - Lag-adjusted overdose estimates
• nchs_injury_mortality - Comprehensive injury mortality data

</details>

Rate Limiting

The server implements conservative rate limiting (500ms between requests):

• Without app token: Shared pool (may be throttled)
• With app token: 1,000 requests/hour

To increase limits, register for a free app token at https://data.cdc.gov/profile/app_tokens

Response Format

All methods return JSON with consistent structure:

{
  "dataset": "places_county_2024",
  "count": 58,
  "data": [
    {
      "year": "2022",
      "stateabbr": "CA",
      "locationname": "Los Angeles County",
      "measureid": "DIABETES",
      "data_value": "11.2",
      "data_value_unit": "%",
      "low_confidence_limit": "10.8",
      "high_confidence_limit": "11.6"
    }
  ]
}

SoQL Query Language

CDC datasets support Socrata Query Language (SoQL):

Common Parameters

• $select: Choose specific fields
• $where: Filter conditions
• $order: Sort results
• $limit: Max results
• $offset: Pagination start

Example SoQL Clauses

Filtering:

stateabbr='CA' AND data_value>15.0
year>=2020 AND year<=2024
measureid IN ('DIABETES', 'OBESITY', 'CHD')

Sorting:

data_value DESC
year ASC, data_value DESC

Data Sources

All data comes from official CDC sources:

• https://data.cdc.gov
• https://chronicdata.cdc.gov