ProMED-mail

Did You Know?

• The Epicore programme, launched in March 2016, uses volunteers worldwide to find and report outbreaks via non-traditional methods.
• ProMED-mail and HealthMap received a grant from Google.org's Predict and Prevent initiative in October 2008.
• The epidemiological data in ProMED posts has been used to estimate mortality rates and demographic parameters for specific diseases.

History

ProMED-mail was founded in 1994 under the Federation of American Scientists by Dr. Stephen Morse, Dr. Barbara Rosenberg, and Dr. Jack Woodall. The idea for a global network had first been proposed by Donald A. Henderson in 1989. Initially a direct scientist-to-scientist network, it became a prototype outbreak reporting list after the 1995 Ebola outbreak. In early 2003, physician Stephen O. Cunnion submitted the first report of the SARS outbreak, allowing tracking nearly two months before the worldwide alert. In 2012, a physician reported the MERS outbreak to the community; eight days later, the Saudi Health Ministry announced a new coronavirus. The system grew alongside Canada's Global Public Health Intelligence Network. At 23:59 on 30 December 2019, ProMED received its first COVID-19 communication. On 3 August 2023, 21 of its 38 paid moderators and editors went on strike, citing lack of support from ISID.

Disease surveillance and reporting

ProMED pioneered informal disease reporting, now called event-based surveillance or epidemic intelligence. According to WHO, more than 60% of initial outbreak reports come from informal sources including ProMED. Reports are published on ProMEDmail.org and emailed to subscribers at no cost. Posts are real-time, with geotags and links, and are screened by 45 expert moderators worldwide. As an independent program of the non-government, nonprofit International Society for Infectious Diseases, ProMED avoids delay or suppression by governments. Versions are available in Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, French, Middle East and North Africa, South Asia and Arabic Summaries, as well as English versions for the Mekong Basin region and Africa.

One Health

ProMED has embodied the One Health principle since its inception, recognizing that human, animal, and environmental health are linked. An estimated 70% of emerging human diseases originate in animals. ProMED includes posts on emerging animal diseases and agriculturally important plant diseases due to their impact on human survival.