Reporting standards for outbreak data: A systematic review

The current landscape of data reporting for outbreaks is ad hoc and inconsistent. Public health authorities have discretion to determine when, where, how, and what outbreak data to report. This uneven information flow hampers response efforts by decreasing the accountability and transparency needed to build public trust in the public health response. We performed a systematic literature review using the PubMed, EMBASE, MedLine Plus, and Google Scholar databases to identify existing guidelines that address timing, methodology and content of outbreak reporting. Our search strategy produced 46 manuscripts for initial screening to determine eligibility, after which we performed a full-text review of those selected for comprehensive evaluation. We identified four manuscripts that discuss minimum standards and expectations for outbreak reports. Included manuscripts highlight the absence of and the consequent need for minimum standards for what information should be reported to the public during outbreaks. Together, they suggest that the ideal outbreak report should contain information on disease severity, epidemic size and geographic extent, daily and total case count, demographics, transmissibility, signs and symptoms, probable disease transmission and exposure pathways, countermeasure status, and sources of uncertainty. This systematic review of existing guidelines is part of a larger effort to develop consensus guidelines for the public reporting of outbreak data. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. ### Funding Statement The Center for Health Security received funding from the Open Philanthropy Project: The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. ### Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable. Yes All data produced in the present work are contained in the manuscript