canonical: https://jentic.com/apis/disease.sh/disease

# disease.sh API

Jentic publishes the only available OpenAPI specification for the disease.sh API, keeping it validated and agent-ready. The disease.sh API serves global disease statistics as open, read-only JSON. It returns COVID-19 case totals and historical time series by country, continent, US state, and county, drawn from JHU, NYT, Apple mobility, and government sources. It also reports COVID-19 vaccine coverage, variant data from the ECDC, and influenza surveillance figures from the CDC.

## For AI agents

Retrieve open, keyless global disease statistics: COVID-19 totals and history by country and region, vaccine coverage, variant data, and CDC influenza surveillance.

## Scope

Does not handle patient records, appointment scheduling, or medical diagnosis. Use for retrieving public disease statistics such as COVID-19 and influenza data only.

## Capabilities

- Get global, per-country, and per-continent COVID-19 case totals
- Retrieve COVID-19 time series history for a country, province, or US county
- Look up COVID-19 vaccine doses administered globally and by country or state
- Pull US state and county COVID-19 figures from JHU and NYT sources
- Retrieve COVID-19 government-reported and ECDC variant data by country
- Get influenza surveillance data from the CDC

## Use cases

### Agent-Built Disease Dashboard

An AI agent assembling a public-health dashboard can pull global and per-country COVID-19 totals, historical time series, and vaccine coverage from the disease.sh API in a single pass. Because every endpoint is a public read, the agent can refresh the figures without managing a key.

Example prompt: Get the global COVID-19 totals and the time series for a specific country, then summarize the trend

### Country and Region Comparison

Analytics tools can compare COVID-19 totals across countries, continents, US states, and counties using the disease.sh API's geographic endpoints. It aggregates figures from JHU, NYT, and government sources so a comparison does not require querying each source separately.

Example prompt: Retrieve COVID-19 totals for a set of countries and rank them by reported cases

### Vaccine and Influenza Tracking

Reporting workflows can track COVID-19 vaccine doses administered by country and state and pull CDC influenza surveillance data from the disease.sh API. This supports seasonal and vaccination monitoring from one open data source.

Example prompt: Get vaccine coverage for a country and the latest CDC influenza-like-illness figures

## Key endpoints

| Method | Path | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| GET | `/v3/covid-19/all` | Get global COVID-19 totals |
| GET | `/v3/covid-19/countries` | Get COVID-19 totals for all countries |
| GET | `/v3/covid-19/countries/{country}` | Get COVID-19 totals for a specific country |
| GET | `/v3/covid-19/historical/{country}` | Get COVID-19 time series data for a country |
| GET | `/v3/covid-19/vaccine/coverage` | Get global COVID-19 vaccine doses administered |
| GET | `/v3/covid-19/states` | Get COVID-19 totals for all US states |
| GET | `/v3/covid-19/jhucsse` | Get COVID-19 totals by country and province from JHU |
| GET | `/v3/influenza/cdc/ILINet` | Get CDC influenza-like-illness data |

## Key resources

- **COVID-19 totals** — Current case totals by global, country, continent, US state, and county
- **COVID-19 historical** — Time series data by country, province, and US county from JHU and NYT
- **Vaccine coverage** — COVID-19 vaccine doses administered globally and by country or state
- **Variants and government data** — ECDC variant data and government-reported figures by country
- **Influenza** — CDC influenza-like-illness and surveillance report data

## AI readiness

This API is usable in Jentic One now. Its AI-readiness score against Jentic's framework shows where it stands today and where improvements would make it even easier for agents to use.

- **Score:** 39 / 100
- **Maturity:** Non-Ready
- **Dimensions:**
  - Foundational Compliance: 44 / 100
  - Developer Experience & Jentic Compatibility: 32 / 100
  - AI-Readiness & Agent Experience: 21 / 100
  - Agent Usability: 94 / 100
  - Security: 100 / 100
  - AI Discoverability: 67 / 100
- **View full report:** https://jentic.com/apis/disease.sh/disease/scorecard
- **How the score is calculated:** https://docs.jentic.com/reference/api-readiness-framework/overview/
- **More about the dimensions:** https://docs.jentic.com/reference/api-readiness-framework/specification/#dimensional-model-overview

### Score it yourself

Every API in the directory is allowlisted, so you can re-score it with no key required.

- **Score your own API:** https://jentic.com/scorecard.md
- **Scoring CLI agent skill:** https://github.com/jentic/jentic-api-scorecard/blob/main/skills/jentic-api-scorecard/SKILL.md

```sh
npx @jentic/api-scorecard-cli score <openapi-url>
```

## Why Jentic

- **Setup:** Wiring the disease.sh API by hand means learning its many geographic and source-specific COVID-19, vaccine, and influenza endpoints and matching countries, states, and counties yourself. Through Jentic you install once, import the disease.sh API from the API Directory, and your agent calls it.
- **Permission scoping:** The disease.sh API is read-only and needs no credential, but a Jentic rule still bounds which operations your agent may call. Limit it to the COVID-19 country and historical lookups it needs, and leave the influenza, vaccine, and variant operations out unless you add them.
- **Credential handling:** The disease.sh API needs no credential, so there is nothing to inject at call time. When you connect APIs that do require keys through Jentic, those keys are handled by your own Jentic One instance and never enter the agent's prompt, logs, or context.
- **Discovery method:** Agents search Jentic by intent such as 'get COVID-19 totals for a country' or 'get vaccine coverage', and Jentic returns the matching disease.sh operation with its input schema so the agent calls the right endpoint without reading the reference docs.

## Related APIs

- **HealthData.gov** — HealthData.gov publishes US public-health datasets, an alternative open source to the disease.sh API's statistics.
- **openFDA** — openFDA serves FDA drug, device, and adverse-event data that complements the disease.sh API's case statistics.
- **ClinicalTrials.gov** — ClinicalTrials.gov lists clinical studies that complement the disease.sh API's vaccine and therapeutics trial figures.

## FAQ

### Why is there no official OpenAPI spec for the disease.sh API?

disease.sh does not publish an OpenAPI specification. Jentic generates and maintains this spec so that AI agents and developers can call the disease.sh API via structured tooling. It is validated against the live API and kept up to date. To run it on your own infrastructure, install Jentic One from its GitHub repo.

### Does the disease.sh API require authentication?

No. The disease.sh API is an open, read-only API and its OpenAPI spec declares no authentication, so requests need no key or token. Through Jentic the API behaves the same way, and when you add APIs that do require credentials, those are handled by your own Jentic One instance.

### Can I get COVID-19 data for a specific country with the disease.sh API?

Yes. The disease.sh API returns COVID-19 totals and historical time series for a specific country, a set of countries, continents, US states, and counties. It also provides vaccine coverage and influenza surveillance data from sources like JHU, NYT, and the CDC.

### What are the rate limits for the disease.sh API?

The OpenAPI spec does not specify rate limits for the disease.sh API. Check the provider's documentation at https://disease.sh/docs for the current limits.

### Can I limit what my agent is allowed to do with the disease.sh API?

Yes. Even though the API needs no credential, a Jentic rule still bounds which operations your agent may call. Write a rule that allows only the COVID-19 country and historical lookups the agent needs, and leave the influenza and vaccine operations out unless you add them, and every call it makes is logged.

### How do I pull COVID-19 statistics with the disease.sh API through Jentic?

Search Jentic for 'get COVID-19 totals for a country' and it returns the matching disease.sh operation with its input schema. Import the disease.sh API from the Jentic API Directory, and because it needs no credential your agent can call the country, historical, and vaccine operations right away.

### Is there a disease.sh MCP server?

You don't need an MCP server to give your agent the disease.sh API. Jentic connects it directly from the API Directory: import it and your agent calls the COVID-19 and influenza operations with no key to manage. Nothing extra loads into the agent's context until an operation is actually used.