The phrase "a small outbreak" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to describe a minor occurrence of a disease or phenomenon, typically in a public health context.
Example: "The health department reported a small outbreak of flu cases in the community last week."
Alternatives: "a minor outbreak" or "a limited outbreak".
Two years ago there was a small outbreak in Palmer Cove in Groton, and a decade ago there was one in both Palmer Cove and Mumford Cove, also in Groton.
Even a small outbreak "would mean millions," if not billions, of dollars, Dr. Breitmeyer said.
A small outbreak response team and a small unit monitoring drug resistance among microbes had nobody at work.
There has been a small outbreak of cases in Europe, with 13 cases identified by health officials since June last year.
It all may have started with the terror caused by a small outbreak of bubonic plague in India a few years back.
It never became established in the Americas (though there was a small outbreak in Brazil 90 years ago), nor in Australia or New Zealand.
The government already has a small stockpile of some 15 million doses of smallpox vaccine that might be enough to blunt a small outbreak in one location, depending on how it developed.
That is a small outbreak compared with those in Mexico or the United States, but the cases grew so quickly that Ukraine closed its schools and universities and asked for help.
The open-air test of a Soviet smallpox weapon in 1971 caused a small outbreak of the disease in a port on the Aral Sea, in what is now Kazakhstan, even among people who had been vaccinated.
In 1976, after a small outbreak of swine influenza at Fort Dix in New Jersey, public-health officials persuaded President Gerald R. Ford and Congress to mount a nationwide immunization campaign that came in for widespread criticism.
New York City health officials said yesterday that nine residents at a Manhattan nursing home had shown symptoms of influenza, in a small outbreak early in the flu season that underscored concerns about this year's shortage of flu vaccine.
