Global disease reporting service ProMED faces uncertain future as funding runs out

ProMED, the free disease reporting service that in 2019 brought the world its first notification of a novel coronavirus causing sickness in China, is facing a strike by most of its editors after its owner, the International Society for Infectious Diseases (ISID), shut down many of its services and said it will move to a paid subscription model in the autumn.

ISID announced the change after a fundraising drive launched last October failed to attract any large backers, bringing in just $20 000 of a $1m target.

The changes were announced last month in a letter addressed to the “ProMED community” and signed by “the ProMED team.” It lamented “an ongoing misperception that because ProMED has been around for so long and has such a successful track record, that it is well funded. Unfortunately, this is not the case. To put it frankly, ProMED is in dire financial straits.”1

But an email sent to the service’s 80 000 subscribers two weeks later, and signed by …