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Definition of Epidemic scorecard
Medically reviewed by Min Clinic Staff | Updated: January 2026
Epidemic scorecard: A tally of epidemics.
The scorecard, based on estimates from the World Health Organization in 2003, reads as follows:
- Tuberculosis: 8 million new cases and 2 million deaths a year. A third of the world population has TB. Drug-resistant incurable strains on the rise.
- Malaria: 300-500 million new cases and a million deaths a year. Drug-resistant forms are increasing.
- Hepatitis B: 10-30 million new cases and a million death a year from hepatitis B, a leading cause of cirrhosis, liver cancer and liver failure.
- Diarrheal diseases: 2.7 billion new cases and 1.9 million deaths, mainly of children, per year from cholera, shigella, typhoid, E. coli, and other agents of diarrhea.
- HIV/AIDS: 5.5 million new cases of HIV infection and 3.1 million deaths a year from AIDS.
- Measles: 30 million new cases and nearly 900,000 deaths a year. Measles (also called rubeola) is entirely preventable with a vaccine that costs 26 cents that has been available since 1963.
- Dengue fever: 20 million new cases and 24,000 deaths a year from this mosquito-borne disease.
- Influenza: 3-5 million new cases and 250,000 deaths a year.
- Yellow fever: 200,000 new cases and 30,000 deaths a year.
- SARS: About 5,400 cases and 350 deaths from severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in the first 180 days of the epidemic.