Disease Outbreak News

Disease Outbreak News (DON) is the World Health Organization's primary public reporting channel for outbreak events. Each DON is a self-contained bulletin describing one outbreak event at one point in time — case counts, geographic spread, response measures, and the WHO's risk assessment. DONs are numbered sequentially within each year (DON 599, DON 600, DON 601, etc.) and published on the WHO website at www.who.int/emergencies/disease-outbreak-news.

DON bulletins serve several audiences simultaneously: national ministries of health receive them as authoritative signal; clinicians and epidemiologists use them as case-definition and surveillance references; journalists and the public use them as primary documentation of an event. The structure is consistent across pathogens: a description of the situation, epidemiology of cases, WHO advice, and references. Bulletins are issued in WHO's six official languages and translated into others by national authorities as needed.

DON publication cadence varies by event. During a fast-moving outbreak DONs may be published every 3 to 7 days; during quiescent periods, weeks to months may pass between bulletins on the same event. Pandemic Watch ingests every DON for tracked pathogens via the WHO OData API and surfaces them as outbreak entries with editorial briefings.