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Review
. 2017 May 1;9(3):177-183.
doi: 10.1093/inthealth/ihx014.

ProMED-mail: 22 years of digital surveillance of emerging infectious diseases

Malwina Carrion  1 , Lawrence C Madoff  1   2
Affiliations
Review

ProMED-mail: 22 years of digital surveillance of emerging infectious diseases

Malwina Carrion et al. Int Health. .

Abstract

ProMED-mail (ProMED) was launched in 1994 as an email service to identify unusual health events related to emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases and toxins affecting humans, animals and plants. It is used daily by public health leaders, government officials at all levels, physicians, veterinarians and other healthcare workers, researchers, private companies, journalists and the general public. Reports are produced and commentary provided by a global team of subject matter experts in a variety of fields including virology, parasitology, epidemiology, entomology, veterinary and plant disease specialists. ProMED operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and has over 83 000 subscribers, representing every country in the world. Additionally, ProMED disseminates information via its website and through social media channels such as Twitter and Facebook as well as through RSS feeds. Over the last 22 years, it has been the first to report on numerous major and minor disease outbreaks including SARS, MERS, Ebola and the early spread of Zika. ProMED is transparent, apolitical, open to all and free of charge, making it an important and longstanding contributor to global health surveillance.

Keywords: Emerging infectious diseases; EpiCore; Outbreaks; ProMED-mail; Surveillance.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Map of ProMED-mail moderators, staff and volunteers.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
ProMED-mail information flowchart (adapted and updated from Madoff 2004). PMm: ProMED-mail; RFI: request for information; RSS: rich site summary; ProMED-EAFR (English language posts focusing on Anglophone Africa); ProMED-ESP (Spanish language posts focusing on Latin America); ProMED-FRA (French language posts focusing on Francophone Africa); ProMED-MBDS (English language posts focusing on the Mekong Basin region of Southeast Asia); ProMED-MENA (English language posts with summaries in Arabic focusing on the Middle East); ProMED-PORT (Portuguese language posts focusing on Latin America); ProMED-RUS (Russian language posts focusing on the independent states of the former Soviet Union); ProMED-SOAS (English language posts focusing on South Asia).
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Total number of ProMED-mail email subscribers by year; 2010 to March 2017.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Word cloud showing the most popular ProMED-mail topics by region from 01 January 2016 to 31 December 2016.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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