Communicating about infectious disease threats: Insights from public health information officers

•Infectious disease threats in a dynamic communication environment bring new challenges for public health information officers (PIOs).•Different types of infectious diseases prompt the need for communication in different ways.•There are many structural and institutional issues affecting the performance and effectiveness IDT communication.•Infectious disease threat messages, materials, and recommendations sent by PIOs need to be trusted in news media engagement.•PIOs and health agencies need to strategically integrate traditional, social, and online media in doing infectious disease communication.