Guidance

Emerging infections: characteristics, epidemiology and global distribution

Information on the reasons behind human infectious disease emergence, including a timeline and a global map.

From:
UK Health Security Agency
Published
12 February 2018
Last updated
5 January 2023 — See all updates

Documents

Emerging infections: how and why they arise

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Details

An emerging infectious disease can be either a newly recognised infectious disease or a known disease whose reported incidence within the past 20 years is increasing (or threatens to increase) in a specific place, or among a specific population.

A timeline, map and table show newly identified emerging infections and notable outbreaks of diseases in humans in new areas between 2003 and 2022.

Updates to this page

Published 12 February 2018
Last updated 5 January 2023 + show all updates

  1. Updated guidance.

  2. Updated the emerging infections timeline and global map.

  3. First published.

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