Flu from A to Z

An outbreak is a sudden rise in the occurrence (the number of cases) of a disease. Some outbreaks are expected each year, like influenza, hand-foot-and-mouth disease, and bronchiolitis. This term might be used when a single case of an unusual disease occurs. In 2006, a team of researchers, epidemiologists and informaticians at Children's Hospital Boston developed HealthMap, an online tool for disease outbreak monitoring and real-time surveillance of emerging public health threats.