Infographic Details

America’s Economy in Jeopardy: The Threat from Global Outbreaks

Modeling the Impact of a Hypothetical Outbreak

A global infectious disease outbreak can have a catastrophic impact on the U.S. economy – even if the disease never reaches the U.S.

As shown to the right, an outbreak in a single country overseas puts U.S. exports and export-related jobs at risk. When an uncontained outbreak becomes a regional epidemic, potential costs skyrocket and the number of American jobs threatened multiplies. An epidemic impacting a large region like Asia could cost the U.S. over $41 billion and put over 1.3 million U.S. jobs at risk.

CDC’s global health security work keeps American jobs and exports safe by working with countries to ensure they can PREVENT outbreaks, DETECT threats early, and RESPOND rapidly to public health threats at the source.

National Outbreak

• Hypothetical outbreak
  Identifed in One Country
• 1,491 U.S. Jobs at Risk
• $63.7 Million

Regional Spread

• Outbreak Spreads to Five Additional Countries
• 254,519 U.S. Jobs at Risk
• $7.9 Billion

Continental Reach

• Outbreak Continues to Spread, Impacting a Total of Nine Countries
• 1.37+ Million U.S. Jobs at Risk
• $41.4 Billion

Source: Cassell CH, Bambery Z, Roy K, et al. Relevance of Global Health Security to the U.S. Export Economy. Health Security; 201:15(6) and Bambery Z, Cassell CH, Bunnell RE, et al. Impact of hypothetical infectious disease outbreak on US exports and export-based jobs. Health Secur. Countries shaded represent CDC global health security priority countries (Global Health Security Agenda Phase I and II and Global Disease Detection countries)