PHEIC outbreaks were: H1N1 (2009), Polio (2014), Ebola (2014, 2018), Zika (2016), COVID-19 (2020).
These outbreaks raise such concerns because they were threat to public health by causing severe morbidity and high mortality. Some also posed rapid global spread.
The possible PHEIC in the future could be the emergence of a zoonotic influenza strain such as H5N1 that could potentially adapt to mammalian host and spread between humans.
