Guidance

Emerging infections: characteristics, epidemiology and global distribution

Information on the reasons behind human infectious disease emergence, including a timeline and a global map.

• From: UK Health Security Agency
• Published: 12 February 2018
• Last updated: 11 August 2025
  Show all updates

  1. 11 August 2025

     Updated C. auris name following reclassification.

  2. 1 May 2025

     Map, timeline and table updated

  3. 5 January 2023

     Updated guidance.

  4. 27 February 2019

     Updated the emerging infections timeline and global map.

  5. 12 February 2018

     First published.

Documents

Emerging infections: how and why they arise

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Details

An emerging infectious disease can be either a newly recognised infectious disease or a known disease whose reported incidence within the past 20 years is increasing (or threatens to increase) in a specific place, or among a specific population.

A timeline, map and table show newly identified emerging infections and notable outbreaks of diseases in humans in new areas between 2003 and 2022.