sporadic outbreaks
Intermittent disease clusters
Sporadic outbreaks are irregular, scattered occurrences of something undesirable—typically disease, violence, or conflict—that appear unpredictably rather than in a sustained pattern.
The phrase emphasizes both the intermittent timing and the dispersed locations: Sporadic outbreaks of cholera continued throughout the region.
Unlike an epidemic or sustained campaign, sporadic outbreaks flare up, subside, and reappear elsewhere.
- flare-upsSudden intensifications of trouble
- clustersGrouped collections
- eruptionsSudden forceful discharges
- isolatedSeparated from others
- scatteredSpread irregularly about
flare up again · intermittent · contagion · community spread · surge · wave · hotspot · contact tracing · herd immunity · containment · quarantine · spreading · infection · disease · viral · random · unpredictable · sudden
sporadic outbreakszero cases
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