Global Disease Outbreaks: A 2025 Snapshot and Implications for the U.S.

KFF Each year, there are multiple infectious disease outbreaks (defined as the occurrence of cases of disease in excess of what is expected) throughout the world. Some of these become severe and have global and domestic implications, including, most notably, the COVID-19 pandemic, but also the 2002-2004 SARS outbreak in China and eventually 28 other countries and the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Since outbreaks are an ongoing reality and threat to human health, understanding the current status and scope of global disease outbreaks is important for stemming further spread to other geographic areas and populations, providing advice to travelers, and identifying the types of medical countermeasures that might be needed. While historically the U.S. government has played a key and often lead role in responding to outbreaks throughout the world, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, understanding the extent of outbreaks takes on added importance now, given changes made by the Trump administration. These changes include reduced funding, reductions in the number of U.S. staff supporting international outbreak response efforts, and elimination of some offices and functions, actions which collectively have diminished current U.S. government capacity to respond to outbreaks at home and abroad, even as experts believe another costly pandemic may strike the world within 25 years. There may a renewed opportunity, however, to mitigate some of these risks with the release of the State Department’s new U.S. global health strategy, which includes global health security as one of its three pillars.