Global Baseline Project – Historical Record of Outbreaks, 1996-2009

Emily H. Chan, Timothy F. Brewer, Lawrence C. Madoff, Marjorie P. Pollack, Amy L. Sonricker, Mikaela Keller, Clark C. Freifeld, Michael Blench, Abla Mawudeku, John S. Brownstein (2010) Global capacity for emerging infectious disease detection. PNAS

Interactive visualization available via Google Public Data Explorer

Global distribution of selected WHO-confirmed outbreaks. Click on each marker for more information about each outbreak.

WHO Report Date: Date of the initial WHO Disease Outbreak News report.

Initial WHO Report: Link to the initial WHO report. Please note that additional information (including diagnosis) may have been provided in later reports or other reports picked up by ProMED, HealthMap or GPHIN.

Disease: laboratory-confirmed diagnosis, if determined.

Precise Location: Initial location of outbreak. If unknown or if more than one location given, the location with the highest morbidity/mortality or the first mentioned location is given.

Analyses reveal that timeliness of outbreak detection and public reporting of outbreaks have both improved over time, though the degree of improvement varied by geographic region. In particular, statistically significant improvements have occurred in the Western Pacific and Eastern Mediterranean.