Outbreak Toolkit

Outbreak Toolkit

Providing the tools to investigate disease outbreaks, collect data and guide response activities

Overview

The Outbreak Toolkit is specifically designed for epidemiologists and field investigators operating at the frontline of complex emergencies and in resource-limited settings. It provides a comprehensive, up-to-date toolkit for investigating both infectious disease outbreaks and non-infectious events and hazards. By offering standardized tools, the Toolkit addresses the critical need for data consistency and facilitates effective data sharing across teams, locations, and timeframes. It serves as an essential asset for public health professionals confronting the unique challenges of outbreak response in demanding environments.

This online resource, specially crafted for complex emergencies and limited resource settings, offers epidemiologists and field investigators a wide range of up-to-date, comprehensive tools for investigating outbreaks of infectious and non infectious diseases and hazards. It serves as a valuable asset in addressing public health challenges in challenging environments.

A good investigation responds to the questions:

Why is this population affected here and now by this disease? Who may be at risk? What has changed?

Who

WHO

  • What is the age, sex, gender of cases?
  • What are the norms and values or cases?
  • What are the attitudes and behaviors that may have driven the spread of the disease?

What

WHAT

  • What are the signs and symptoms?
  • What is the differential diagnosis?
  • What is the causative agent?

 

 

Where

WHERE

  • Where do the affected individuals come from?
  • What is their geographical distribution?
  • What are potential points of exposure/ contamination (e.g. environment, workplace)?
  • What diseases are known to occur in this location?

When

WHEN

  • When was the first case reported?
  • When did the first symptoms occur for each reported case?
  • When did the potential exposure occur?
  • What is the incubation period?

How

HOW

  • How is the causative agent spreading?
  • How is the causative agent affecting this population?
  • What is/are the models of transmission?

 

 

Disease-specific toolboxes

Each toolbox includes up to date resources needed to conduct a thorough outbreak investigation on a range of diseases and hazards.

Access toolbox

Forms and One health resources to investigate diseases

The toolkit includes guidance, tools, resources and links to critical technical documents, generic or grouped by suspected exposure or syndromes.

Access generic forms and One Health resources

Stages of an outbreak investigation

Understand the systematic approach to investigating an outbreak.

Read about the stages

New to the Outbreak toolkit

The following items have been added in the last month:

Upload of the T1(Unknown diseases CIF) and T0 (Time Zero Initial CIF)

  • The standard outbreak investigation forms, T1 and T0, are now available in XLS format for direct upload into digital data collection platforms, such as KoboToolbox, ODK Collect, Survey123 for ArcGIS, SurveyCTO, and others.
  • These tools support faster data collection, field deployment, and integration into real-time dashboards, while maintaining alignment with WHO’s standardized outbreak investigation workflows.

 

Interim Guidance on Laboratory Testing for Dengue Virus (WHO, April 2025):

  • This newly published WHO guidance provides updated interim protocols for laboratory testing of the dengue virus in the context of outbreaks and surveillance. It includes a diagnostic algorithm for suspected cases, outlining appropriate testing methods based on days post-symptom onset.