Guidance
Emerging infections: characteristics, epidemiology and global distribution
Information on the reasons behind human infectious disease emergence, including a timeline and a global map.
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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
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Updated guidance.
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Updated the emerging infections timeline and global map.
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First published.