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. 2024 Feb 26;9(2):e012876.
doi: 10.1136/bmjgh-2023-012876.

Disseminating information on acute public health events globally: experiences from the WHO's Disease Outbreak News

Harsh Lata #  1 , Neil Jan Saad Duque #  1 , Eri Togami  1 , Alessandro Miglietta  1 , Devin Perkins  1 , Aura Corpuz  2 , Masaya Kato  3 , Amarnath Babu  3 , Tshewang Dorji  4 , Tamano Matsui  5 , Maria Almiron  6 , Ka Yeung Cheng  7 , Lauren E MacDonald  7 , Jukka Tapani Pukkila  7 , George Sie Williams  8 , Roberta Andraghetti  1 , Carmen Dolea  1 , Abdirahman Mahamud  1 , Oliver Morgan  1 , Babatunde Olowokure  9 , Ibrahima Socé Fall  1 , Adedoyin Awofisayo-Okuyelu #  1 , Esther Hamblion #  10
Affiliations

Disseminating information on acute public health events globally: experiences from the WHO's Disease Outbreak News

Harsh Lata et al. BMJ Glob Health. .

Abstract

WHO works, on a daily basis, with countries globally to detect, prepare for and respond to acute public health events. A vital component of a health response is the dissemination of accurate, reliable and authoritative information. The Disease Outbreak News (DON) reports are a key mechanism through which WHO communicates on acute public health events to the public. The decision to produce a DON report is taken on a case-by-case basis after evaluating key criteria, and the subsequent process of producing a DON report is highly standardised to ensure the robustness of information. DON reports have been published since 1996, and up to 2022 over 3000 reports have been published. Between 2018 and 2022, the most frequently published DON reports relate to Ebola virus disease, Middle East respiratory syndrome, yellow fever, polio and cholera. The DON web page is highly visited with a readership of over 2.6 million visits per year, on average. The DON report structure has evolved over time, from a single paragraph in 1996 to a detailed report with seven sections currently. WHO regularly reviews the DON report process and structure for improvements. In the last 25 years, DON reports have played a unique role in rapidly disseminating information on acute public health events to health actors and the public globally. They have become a key information source for the global public health response to the benefit of individuals and communities.

Keywords: Epidemiology; Infections, diseases, disorders, injuries; Public Health.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Disease Outbreak News (DON) reports: (A) number of reports published by quarter, 1996–2022, and (B) number of reports published by geographical area, 2018–2022.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Decision instrument for producing Disease Outbreak News (DON) reports.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Disease Outbreak News (DON) process illustrated with timeline for a yellow fever outbreak in Nigeria in November 2020.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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