How to filter news by natural disaster and disease#

To follow coverage of a specific natural disaster or disease outbreak, use the disaster.name and disease.name filters on /v1/news/everything. APITube tags articles with the named entities they mention, and these two parameters keep only the articles linked to a disaster (type natural-disaster) or a disease (type disease). This returns articles mentioning a wildfire event:

curl "https://api.apitube.io/v1/news/everything?disaster.name=Wildfire&api_key=YOUR_API_KEY"

You can send the key as an X-API-Key header instead of the api_key query parameter, and call the endpoint with GET (query parameters) or POST (JSON body). Because these are entity filters, not keyword matches, disease.name=Influenza returns coverage about the disease itself rather than every article that merely contains the word.

How to filter news by a natural disaster#

Pass the disaster’s name to disaster.name. It matches entities of type natural-disaster (entity type id 6), so it covers events like earthquakes, floods, hurricanes and wildfires that APITube already tracks. The parameter accepts up to three names separated by commas, and an article matches if it mentions any of them (OR logic). Each name must be 1 to 120 characters, and spaces should be URL-encoded:

curl "https://api.apitube.io/v1/news/everything?disaster.name=Hurricane%20Milton,Earthquake&api_key=YOUR_API_KEY"

The name has to match a disaster entity APITube tracks. An unknown disaster.name returns HTTP 400 with error ER0224, and a name outside the 1–120 character range returns ER0148. Because the request stops on the first name it cannot resolve, confirm the spelling first — see how to use entity autocomplete to look names up.

How to track a disease outbreak#

disease.name works the same way for entities of type disease (entity type id 7) — illnesses and outbreaks such as influenza, measles or dengue. It also accepts up to three comma-separated names with OR logic, each 1 to 120 characters:

curl "https://api.apitube.io/v1/news/everything?disease.name=Measles,Dengue&api_key=YOUR_API_KEY"

An unknown disease.name returns error ER0226, and a name outside the length range returns ER0152. To watch everything except a disease, use ignore.disease.name (an unknown name there returns ER0227); the disaster equivalent is ignore.disaster.name (ER0225).

How do I find the exact disaster or disease name to use?#

Both filters resolve the name against the entities APITube tracks, so the name must match one of them. The reliable way to find a valid value is entity autocomplete: call GET /v1/suggest/entities with a prefix, and each result includes its id, name and type. A type of natural-disaster confirms a value for disaster.name, and disease confirms one for disease.name. A missing prefix returns error ER0346.

curl "https://api.apitube.io/v1/suggest/entities?prefix=Ebola&api_key=YOUR_API_KEY"

Check the type field before filtering: passing a disease name to disaster.name will not resolve, because each parameter only looks at its own entity type.

How to combine outbreak filters with dates and sentiment#

disaster.name and disease.name are part of the shared filter chain, so they combine with every other search filter in one request. Add published_at.start and published_at.end to scope an outbreak to a window, or language.code and sorting to shape the feed — the same way you would for any entity filter. Different parameters combine with AND, so the example below returns recent articles that mention the disease and carry negative sentiment toward it:

curl "https://api.apitube.io/v1/news/everything?disease.name=Influenza&published_at.start=NOW-7DAYS&entity.sentiment.polarity=negative&api_key=YOUR_API_KEY"

You can restrict results by the tone expressed toward the disaster or disease itself with entity.sentiment.polarity (positive, negative or neutral) and the numeric range entity.sentiment.score.min / entity.sentiment.score.max (each between -1 and 1). A polarity outside the three allowed values returns ER0290; a score outside -1…1 returns ER0291 (min) or ER0292 (max). For live coverage as events develop, pair these filters with breaking-news monitoring. The full parameter list lives in the official parameters reference.

Common Questions#

• What is the difference between disaster.name, disease.name and event.name?
• How many disasters or diseases can I track in one request?
• Why does my disaster or disease name return an error?
• Can I exclude a disaster or disease from my results?

What is the difference between disaster.name, disease.name and event.name?#

They target different entity types. disaster.name matches natural-disaster entities (type id 6), disease.name matches disease entities (type id 7), and event.name matches general event entities (type id 8). Use the parameter that matches what you are tracking — an earthquake belongs under disaster.name, an outbreak under disease.name. If you are unsure of the type, check it with entity autocomplete first.

How many disasters or diseases can I track in one request?#

Up to three per parameter. disaster.name, disease.name and their ignore. variants each accept a comma-separated list, and only the first three values are applied. Multiple values inside one parameter use OR logic, so an article matches if it mentions any of them. Adding a second parameter narrows results with AND.

Why does my disaster or disease name return an error?#

The name must match an entity APITube already tracks. An unknown disaster.name returns ER0224 and an unknown disease.name returns ER0226, both HTTP 400, and the request stops at the first unresolved name. A name shorter than 1 or longer than 120 characters returns ER0148 (disaster) or ER0152 (disease). Confirm the exact spelling and entity type through GET /v1/suggest/entities?prefix= before filtering.

Can I exclude a disaster or disease from my results?#

Yes. Use ignore.disaster.name or ignore.disease.name with the same rules — up to three comma-separated names, each 1 to 120 characters. They keep articles that do not mention the named disaster or disease. An unknown name returns ER0225 for ignore.disaster.name and ER0227 for ignore.disease.name.