How we process data

HealthWatch Global does not produce original surveillance data. We aggregate, normalize and present data from four official international health authorities — without editorial interpretation.

Last updated: June 2026

Official data sources

WHO DONGlobal

Disease Outbreak News

Irregular — per outbreak event

www.who.int/emergencies/disease-outbreak-news ↗

ECDC CDTREurope / global risk assessment

Communicable Disease Threats Report

Weekly + ad hoc

www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/threats-and-outbreaks ↗

PAHOAmericas

Pan American Health Organization alerts

Per event

www.paho.org/en/epidemiological-alerts-and-updates ↗

Africa CDCAfrica

Africa Centres for Disease Control

Per event + weekly sitrep

africacdc.org/outbreaks-events ↗

Data pipeline

Automated sync — WHO: hourly | ECDC, PAHO & Africa CDC: weekly

Scheduled cron jobs fetch the latest publications from each source. WHO DON is checked every hour. ECDC, PAHO and Africa CDC are checked weekly. New outbreaks are ingested within 1 hour of WHO publication, or within the same week for the other sources.

Normalization

Country names, disease names, dates and case counts are standardized to a common schema. Disease names are mapped to canonical English names used across all 5 languages.

Deduplication

Outbreaks from multiple sources for the same event are matched and merged. The highest-authority source (WHO DON > ECDC > PAHO > Africa CDC) takes precedence for case counts.

Storage & ISR

Data is stored in a PostgreSQL database (Supabase). Dashboard pages are revalidated every hour via Next.js ISR. The data freshness badge on the dashboard shows the last successful sync timestamp.

Data quality tiers

WHO DON

WHO Disease Outbreak News

Officially citable WHO bulletin with a unique DON reference number. Highest confidence — data comes directly from the WHO's official outbreak notification system.

OFFICIAL

Confirmed official source

Data sourced from a confirmed official report (WHO situation report, ECDC assessment, PAHO alert, or national Ministry of Health) — without an assigned WHO DON reference.

UNVERIFIED

Unverified provisional figures

Preliminary figures not yet matched to a confirmed official report. Used for outbreaks that have been publicly announced but not yet covered by a formal WHO/official bulletin. Treat with caution.

Stale data detection

When no official update has been published for an outbreak in more than 14 days, a ⚠ NO UPDATE badge appears on the outbreak row. This does not mean the outbreak is resolved — it may be ongoing but unreported, or the source may not have published a new bulletin. We never auto-close outbreaks based on silence alone.

Case fatality rate (CFR)

CFR is calculated automatically from the case and death counts as reported by the official source:

CFR = Deaths ÷ Confirmed cases × 100

This is the crude CFR as reported — not age-standardized, adjusted for underreporting, or corrected for reporting lag. Early-outbreak CFR is inherently unstable. Use with appropriate epidemiological caution.

Risk level assignment

Risk levels are assigned algorithmically from published WHO IHR criteria (Art. 6, 9, 12) — not by editorial judgment. HIGH means an outbreak matches WHO's published NFP notification threshold. HealthWatch Global does not conduct independent epidemiological risk assessment. All clinical and policy decisions must rely on primary WHO/ECDC sources and qualified professionals.

HIGH RISK

WHO DON issued, PHEIC declared, CFR > 5%, or novel pathogen / first human cases. High-consequence pathogens (Ebola, Marburg, SARS) are always HIGH.

MODERATE RISK

Confirmed official source, regional spread documented, CFR 1–5%, or significant case counts in endemic disease (cholera, dengue, mpox).

LOW RISK

Localized outbreak, contained transmission, CFR < 1%, and no evidence of international spread.

Limitations

·We rely entirely on what official sources publish. Reporting delays between outbreak onset and official declaration are outside our control.
·Case counts reflect what has been officially reported — true burden is typically higher due to underdiagnosis and underreporting.
·Outbreak-end detection is manual. We do not automatically close outbreaks unless the source explicitly reports resolution.
·Translations (disease names, country names) are maintained by our team — minor localization nuances may exist in edge cases.
·HealthWatch Global is not a medical authority. Data on this platform should not replace direct consultation of official WHO/ECDC publications for clinical or policy decisions.
·The 'date' field for each outbreak reflects the date reported by the official source bulletin — not when HealthWatch ingested it. Ingestion typically occurs within 1 hour of source publication. The freshness badge on the dashboard shows the actual last ingestion timestamp.
·Successive WHO bulletins on the same disease event may occasionally create two separate entries for the same outbreak. These are detected and merged within 24 hours. Use the 'Report a data error' link on any outbreak page to flag a suspected duplicate immediately.

HealthWatch vs WHO surveillance tools (EIOS, EWARN)

EIOS and similar WHO tools are designed for WHO analysts and affiliated institutions. HealthWatch Global serves a different audience — here is how they differ.

	HealthWatch Global	EIOS / EWARN
Access	Open to any organization — no WHO credentials or affiliation required	EIOS requires WHO affiliation or national IHR focal point access
Cost	€29/month Pro — 14-day free trial, no commitment	Free for WHO member states & accredited institutions only — not available to NGOs, humanitarian organizations, or private sector without WHO institutional credentials
Target user	Operational teams: NGO coordinators, humanitarian staff, health programme managers	Epidemiological analysts with WHO/institutional training
Proactive alerts	Automated email + Slack/Teams alerts per monitored region	No proactive alert system — requires active daily monitoring
Languages	English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Indonesian	Primarily English
Team access	Shared team plans with seat management and single invoice	Individual credentials, no shared team workspace
Data export	PDF reports + CSV export per outbreak or region	Not designed for export to third-party systems

Already using GPHIN?

GPHIN is government intelligence infrastructure for your central analysts. HealthWatch is the operational layer for your field teams — those without GPHIN credentials, working in Arabic, French or Indonesian, who need alerts and shareable PDFs. The two tools are complementary.

Cite this page

HealthWatch Global. How we process data — methodology and sources [Internet]. 2026 [cited 2026 Jun 26]. Available from: https://healthwatch-global.com/en/methodology

Corrections and data disputes

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