Reference desk

Disease sheets that stay close to reporting and atlas work

These guides are imported from the live desk and re-surfaced here so they are usable as part of one publication instead of an isolated utility layer.

ReferenceEbola viruses, including Bundibugyo virus in the current DRC/Uganda outbreak · reference

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Ebola virus disease

Ebola remains a defining outbreak-desk disease because healthcare transmission, funeral practices, laboratory capacity, community trust, and international alarm can all move faster than the confirmed count.

Hemorrhagic fever · High-fatality

ReferenceHantaviruses, including Andes virus in the Americas · reference

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Hantavirus syndrome

This is a rare but frightening severe-disease story where a single unusual cluster can force questions about travel safety, rodent exposure, and whether Andes-virus-style person-to-person spread is in play.

Zoonotic · Hemorrhagic / cardiopulmonary

ReferenceMeasles virus · reference

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Measles

Measles is a clean reporter desk disease because it reveals vaccination gaps, school and household spread, travel-linked importation, and public-health capacity all at once.

Vaccine-preventable · Respiratory

ReferenceBacillus anthracis · reference

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Anthrax

Anthrax is a strong local accountability story because livestock practices, slaughter exposure, and rural reporting gaps can hide serious outbreaks in plain sight.

Zoonotic · Bacterial

ReferenceInfluenza A(H5N1) · reference

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Avian influenza A(H5N1)

H5N1 is one of the few diseases where occupational exposure, food systems, animal surveillance, and pandemic-risk communications all converge in the same file.

Zoonotic · Respiratory

ReferenceChikungunya virus · reference

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Chikungunya

Chikungunya is a high-quality reporter disease because explosive outbreaks can be large, visually obvious, and politically disruptive even when mortality stays low.

Vector-borne · Arbovirus

ReferenceVibrio cholerae · reference

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Cholera

Cholera is one of the clearest diseases for showing how water, war, displacement, climate shocks, and state capacity become mortality.

Waterborne · Enteric

ReferenceDengue virus · reference

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Dengue

Dengue is now one of the best climate-and-city disease stories on earth because mosquito range, urban crowding, and health-system stress all show up in it.

Vector-borne · Arbovirus

ReferenceCorynebacterium diphtheriae · reference

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Diphtheria

Diphtheria is a strong communications disease because it turns abstract vaccination decline into immediately legible airway and mortality risk.

Vaccine-preventable · Respiratory

ReferenceHepatitis A virus · reference

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Hepatitis A

Hepatitis A is useful because it can move between foodborne recall, encampment, homelessness, travel, and sanitation stories without changing pathogen.

Enteric · Vaccine-preventable

ReferenceLegionella bacteria, especially Legionella pneumophila · reference

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Legionnaires' disease

Legionnaires' is a very good local-news and accountability disease because buildings, hospitals, hotels, and cooling towers turn infrastructure failure into human pneumonia clusters.

Environmental · Water systems

ReferencePlasmodium parasites, especially Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax · reference

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Malaria

Malaria is a foundational global-health reporting file because it links endemic burden, climate, resistance, conflict, childhood mortality, and rural neglect.

Vector-borne · Parasitic

ReferenceMarburg virus · reference

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Marburg virus disease

Marburg matters because even small clusters can force rapid reassessment of differential diagnosis, hospital preparedness, and regional spillover risk.

Hemorrhagic fever · High-fatality

ReferenceNeisseria meningitidis · reference

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Meningococcal disease

Meningococcal disease is intensely newsworthy because it is fast, terrifying, often affects schools or young adults, and can force rapid public-health action.

Bacterial · Respiratory

ReferenceMERS-CoV · reference

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Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS)

MERS remains a prototype hospital-cluster and travel-linked importation story where a modest case count can still matter a lot.

Respiratory · Zoonotic

ReferenceMonkeypox virus, including clade Ib and clade IIb · reference

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Mpox

Mpox keeps generating news because social transmission networks, travel, stigma, clade differences, and global inequity collide in a single outbreak story.

Emerging · Contact transmission

ReferenceNipah virus · reference

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Nipah virus disease

Nipah is one of the few pathogens where even a small cluster can raise immediate questions about encephalitis, respiratory spread, hospital amplification, and pandemic risk.

Zoonotic · High-fatality

ReferenceNorovirus · reference

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Norovirus

Norovirus is highly useful for a desk because it produces the kind of explosive local outbreak that readers immediately understand, especially on cruise ships and in institutions.

Enteric · Foodborne

ReferenceOropouche virus · reference

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Oropouche virus disease

Oropouche deserves attention because it can masquerade as dengue-like illness while signaling that arboviral ecology is shifting into new places.

Vector-borne · Arbovirus

ReferenceBordetella pertussis · reference

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Pertussis

Pertussis repeatedly becomes news because it combines school spread, infant risk, vaccine debates, and underrecognized adult transmission.

Vaccine-preventable · Respiratory

ReferencePoliovirus, especially circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 in the cited event · reference

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Poliomyelitis / cVDPV2

Polio is a near-eradication story where environmental detections, asymptomatic carriage, and vaccination politics matter as much as paralytic disease.

Vaccine-preventable · Enteric

ReferenceRabies virus and related lyssaviruses · reference

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Rabies

Rabies remains one of the starkest diseases in communications because nearly every symptomatic human case is a preventable systems failure.

Zoonotic · High-fatality

ReferenceRift Valley fever virus · reference

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Rift Valley fever

Rift Valley fever is one of the best One Health reporting files because rainfall, livestock, mosquitoes, and human disease all move together.

Zoonotic · Vector-borne

ReferenceYellow fever virus · reference

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Yellow fever

Yellow fever matters because a rise in sylvatic spillover, urban encroachment, or vaccine gaps can turn a seemingly remote arbovirus story into a major regional emergency.

Vector-borne · Vaccine-preventable

ReferenceZika virus · reference

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Zika virus disease

Zika matters because congenital outcomes, pregnancy guidance, travel messaging, and mosquito ecology can turn a mild-adult disease story into a major public-health communications event.

Vector-borne · Congenital risk