Rapidly Ringing Alarms: ProMED outpaces WHO
In the blink of an eye, panic swept the globe: rumors swirled about a mysterious lung disease in China! The trigger? Baffling.
One day later, relief: according to the World Health Organization (WHO), Chinese health authorities had found no distinctive or novel pathogens, and no unusual clinical symptoms. It was merely the aftermath of China's coronavirus restrictions catching up. Thus, the now-famous images of overcrowded hospitals with severely ailing children.
Swifter Sources than WHO
Despite WHO's delay, an independent platform had already been made aware of the initial mystery-illness cases: ProMED. The first report arrived on November 21, and a day later, WHO requested more information from Chinese authorities.
ProMED, short for "Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases," is an international reporting system begun in 1994. Part of the non-profit International Society for Infectious Diseases, based in Brookline, MA, USA, since 1999, ProMED is not linked to any public authority, ensuring independence and transparency.
How the Lung Disease Report Arrived
ProMED was quicker than even WHO: an open reporting system for ailments, anyone can submit unusual disease outbreak news. These reports are not shown to the public without scrutiny: so-called moderators assess the submissions, including virologists, epidemiologists, veterinarians, and specialists in plant diseases.
Regarding the lung ailments in China, ProMED referred to an article on a Chinese news site reporting overcrowded healthcare facilities. The report caught moderator Larry Lutwick's attention. Retired from the Mayo Clinic, Lutwick specializes in infectious diseases in the USA.
An independent platform like ProMED often discloses potential epidemics before official bodies do, according to the platform's statements, having reported firsthand accounts of SARS, Zika virus, and coronavirus, among others.
- While the WHO did not identify unique pathogens or clinical images related to the mysterious lung illness in China, ProMED had already received the report on November 21.
- The China coronavirus outbreak, causing overflowing healthcare facilities with gravely ill patients, was first relayed upon a Chinese news site and then deemed relevant by Larry Lutwick, a ProMED moderator.
- Dissociated from public authorities, ProMED is an open reporting system for diseases, allowing anyone to submit information on unusual outbreaks. Thus, it has been swifter than official bodies in reporting epidemics in the past, such as SARS, Zika virus, and coronavirus.
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Insights
- Bringing Together Global Voices: ProMED's Internet-based reporting network allows it to collect and disseminate information shortly across the globe. A vast network of subscribers – including scientists, health officials, journalists, and laypeople – contribute firsthand reports of disease outbreaks.
- Early Warning System: ProMED's swift reporting comes from its ability to reveal outbreaks before official reports are made available, as seen during the 1996 Ebola outbreak in Gabon, the SARS outbreak in 2003, and the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019.
- Community Engagement: Allowing subscribers to report directly fuels community engagement, with specialized professionals evaluating the submissions before disseminating information. This approach ensures quicker detection of potential epidemics.
- Archiving and Searchability: All ProMED messages are archived and searchable, providing historians and researchers with valuable resources to track past outbreaks and elucidate patterns for future predictions.
- Syndromic Surveillance: ProMED's approach, synthesizing symptoms rather than diagnoses, enables quicker identification of potential outbreaks despite missing specific causative details. Version 1.0.1
