Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41420992›Full record

ArticlePublic health2026

Public reporting guidelines for outbreak data: Enabling accountability for effective outbreak response by developing standards for transparency and uniformity.

V Grégoire, A W Zhu, C M Brown, J S Brownstein, D Cardo, F Cumming, R Danila, C A Donnelly, J S Duchin, M A Fill and 22 more

Abstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Public health, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

32 authors.

V GrégoireJohns Hopkins Center for Health Security, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, USA; Department of Environmental Health and Engineering, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, USA.
A W ZhuJohns Hopkins Center for Health Security, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, USA; Department of Environmental Health and Engineering, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, USA.
C M BrownState Epidemiologist and State Public Health Veterinarian, Massachusetts Department of Public Health, USA.
J S BrownsteinHarvard Medical School, USA; Boston Children's Hospital, USA.
D CardoCardo MD Consultants, LLC, USA; Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, USA.
F CummingUK Health Security Agency, and Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, UK.
R DanilaMinnesota Department of Health, USA.
C A DonnellyDepartment of Statistics and Pandemic Sciences Institute, University of Oxford, UK.
J S DuchinPublic Health - Seattle & King County, USA; Division of Infectious Diseases, University of Washington, USA; School of Public Health, University of Washington, USA.
M A FillDivision of Communicable and Environmental Diseases and Emergency Preparedness, Tennessee Department of Health, USA.
K FullertonSurveillance and Data Modernization, Office of Readiness and Response, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, USA.
S FunkLondon School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, UK.
D GeorgeCenter for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, USA.
S HopkinsUK Health Security Agency, UK.
M U G KraemerDepartment of Biology, University of Oxford, UK; Pandemic Sciences Institute, University of Oxford, UK.
M LaytonCouncil of State and Territorial Epidemiologists, USA.
J LesslerDepartment of Epidemiology, University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health, USA; UNC Carolina Population Center, USA; Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, USA.
R LynfieldMinnesota Department of Health, USA.
J M McCawSchool of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Melbourne, Australia; Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Australia.
T D McPhersonBureau of Communicable Diseases, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, USA; Divisions of Infectious Diseases and Immunology, New York University Grossman School of Medicine, USA.
Z MooreNorth Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Public Health, USA.
O MorganPandemic and Epidemic Intelligence Systems, World Health Organization, Germany.
S RileyAnalytics and Surveillance, UK Health Security Agency, UK; School of Public Health, Imperial College London, UK.
R RosenfeldMachine Learning Department, School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University, USA.
E SamoffNorth Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Public Health, USA.
W SchaffnerVanderbilt University Medical Center, USA.
J ShaffnerCareer Epidemiology Field Officer Assigned to the Tennessee Department of Health, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, USA.
R SturmCommunicable and Environmental Disease and Emergency Preparedness, Knox County Health Department, USA.
D TerashitaAcute Communicable Disease Control Program, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, USA.
H WalkeOffice of Readiness and Response, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, USA.
R E WashingtonMecklenburg County Public Health, USA.
C M RiversJohns Hopkins Center for Health Security, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, USA; Department of Environmental Health and Engineering, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, USA. Electronic address: crivers6@jh.edu.

Funding

World Health Organization 001
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectivesThere are few standards for what information about an infectious disease outbreak should be reported to the public and when. To address this problem, we undertook a consensus process to develop recommendations for what epidemiological information public health authorities should report to the public during an outbreak. STUDY

designWe conducted a Delphi study following the steps outlined in the ACcurate COnsensus Reporting Document (ACCORD) for health-related activities or research.

methodsWe assembled a steering committee of nine experts representing federal and state public health, academia, and international partners to develop a candidate list of reporting items. We then invited 45 experts, 35 of whom agreed to participate in a Delphi panel. Of those, 25 participated in voting in the first round, 25 in the second round, and 25 in the third round, demonstrating consistent engagement in the consensus-building process. The final stage of the Delphi process consisted of a hybrid consensus meeting to finalize the voting items.

resultsThe Delphi process yielded nine core reporting items representing a minimum standard for public outbreak reporting: numbers of new confirmed cases, new hospital admissions, new deaths, cumulative confirmed cases, cumulative hospital admissions, and cumulative deaths, each reported weekly and at Administrative Level 1 (typically state or province), and stratified by sex, age group, and race/ethnicity.

conclusionsThis minimum reporting standard creates a strong framework for uniform sharing of outbreak information and promotes consistency of data between jurisdictions, enabling effective response by promoting access to information about an unfolding epidemic.

Indexed as

Disease OutbreaksGuidelines as TopicSocial ResponsibilityConsensusDelphi TechniqueDisease NotificationHumansPublic HealthData reportingEpidemicOutbreakPublic reportingReporting guidelinesReporting standards

Identifiers

PMID41420992
PMCPMC12890769

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.