ProMED-mail

ProMED-mail, global Internet-driven reporting network used to warn of potential outbreaks of infectious disease and of exposures to toxic substances of animals or plants intended for human consumption. ProMED-mail was established as a nonprofit project in 1994 by the Federation of American Scientists. In 1999 it became a program of the International Society for Infectious Diseases.

Information about outbreaks of potentially virulent emerging diseases, such as Ebola, bird flu, and COVID-19, must be communicated rapidly to health ministries and organizations not only in affected regions but also in nearby areas. Early reporting allows public health workers to take steps to prevent the spread of epidemics and to inform the public about how to protect itself.

Through the ProMED-mail system, thousands of scientists, health officials, journalists, and laypeople across the globe keep watch for disease outbreaks around the clock. E-mail reports received from subscribers are reviewed and analyzed by disease experts. Reports are screened by moderators and are then sent out to all subscribers and published on the ProMED-mail Web site. All of the ProMED-mail messages are archived and searchable.

The system is particularly useful because it can communicate information about outbreaks even before official reports appear. For example, when Ebola broke out in Gabon in October 1996, ProMED-mail posted the news as soon as it was released by the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Regional Office for Africa, four days before the information was disseminated on WHO’s own outbreak-reporting system. Likewise, in 2003 ProMED-mail was the first to report an outbreak of disease in China; the disease was identified as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). ProMED-mail notably was the first to report on other major disease outbreaks as well, including chikungunya fever, MERS, and COVID-19.