Announcement

ProMED, the FAS policy initiative calling for global monitoring of emerging diseases, has the following active programs:

• AHEAD/ILIAD
• The ProMED-mail reporting network at the International Society for Infectious Diseases (ISID)

ProMED, the policy initiative of the Federation of American Scientists to promote the establishment of a global Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases, was launched in September 1993 at an international conference cosponsored by the World Health Organization. At that time, working groups of leading human, animal and plant disease specialists were formed to design a global program of infectious disease surveillance.

In 1996, the project published "Global Monitoring of Emerging Diseases: Design for a Demonstration Program", in Health Policy, 38 (135-153). The paper's authors were Stephen S. Morse, B.H.Rosenberg and J. Woodall. In 1998, Dr. Rosenberg incorporated the basic principles from this paper into a program she is promoting as technological assistance under the biological weapons treaty verification protocol, which continues to be negotiated in Geneva.

The FAS project gave birth in 1994 to ProMED-mail, the only totally public global electronic network for reporting outbreaks of infectious human, plant and animal diseases. During the five years that ProMED-mail was operated by FAS and SatelLife/HealthNet, it grew to 18,000 subscribers in 150 countries. It has been passed on to new managers at the International Society for Infectious Diseases.

The third ProMED progeny is Animal Health/Emerging Animal Disease (AHEAD) and its incorporated ILIAD program, which remain active FAS initiatives.

Recognizing that emerging infectious diseases constitute a threat to global security, we will provide updated links from this web site to information resources, as well as preserve materials generated by the combined human, animal and plant disease policy project.