Either an unusual, often sudden, increase in the number of incidents of an infectious disease that already existed in the region (e.g., u, E. coli) or the appearance of an infectious disease previously absent from the region (e.g., plague, polio)
The International Disaster Database (EM-DAT), The EM-DAT Glossary, Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED), School of Public Health, Universit catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium 2009. http://www.emdat.be/glossary/9, (ND/ Gen - Brit) {855}