The World Health Organization(WHO) has been coordinating efforts to identify potential threats Human Metapneumovirus (HMPV) and make sure the world is prepared to handle them.
An awkward question remains five years after Covid-19 began its deadly rampage: is the world ready to handle the next pandemic? Human Metapneumovirus…
The UN health agency cautions that we are not quite ready enough, even though it believes the globe is more prepared now than it was when COVID struck.
“Yes and no” was the response given recently by WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus when asked if the world was better prepared for the next epidemic.
He cautioned that “the globe would still confront some of the same flaws and vulnerabilities if the next epidemic occurred today.”
“But the world has also taken important steps to bolster its defenses, and has learnt many of the hard lessons the pandemic taught us.”
It is a question of when, not if, we will have another pandemic, according to Maria Van Kerkhove, director of the Who is epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention division.
“The 2009 (H1N1) flu pandemic and COVID have both contributed to significant improvements. However, I believe that the world is not prepared for a pandemic or significant outbreak of another infectious illness.
According to Expert views
In its judgment, the Who is Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response was direct. Citing ongoing disparities in access to financing and pandemic-fighting resources like vaccines, it stated, “The world is not ready to handle another pandemic danger in 2025.”
Marion Koopmans, a renowned Dutch virologist, told AFP that the rapid and successful development of mRNA vaccines was a “game changer” for the upcoming pandemic.
But she cautioned that if another pandemic struck soon, “we would have big challenges with the use of vaccines because of that” due to “a apparent increase in vaccine hesitation” and “staggering” levels of disinformation.
Public health authorities will need four to five years to modernize their systems to identify and communicate information more quickly, according to Meg Schaeffer, a disease epidemiologist at the SAS Institute in the United States. She stated, “No, I do not think that we are any more prepared than we were with Covid.”
She did, however, add, “I do have trust that we as a society know what to do… to protect one other,” by restricting travel and personal connections, using facemasks, and avoiding close contact.
Mitigation actions
Measures have been done to manage the effects of the next pandemic and get ready for it. In order to better identify and counter threats, the new WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence in Berlin focuses on joint surveillance.
Since 2022, the World Bank’s Pandemic Fund has awarded $885 million in grants to support around 50 projects in 75 nations. While a Global Training Hub for Bio-manufacturing was developed in South Korea to enhance responses, an mRNA technology transfer hub was established in South Africa to enhance local vaccine production.
A new worldwide alarm button
On January 30, 2020, the WHO issued a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), the highest alarm level permitted by the International Health Regulations, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, the majority of nations did not take immediate action until March 11 of that year, when Tedros declared the outbreak to be a pandemic.
A new, higher “pandemic emergency” level of alarm was added to the health laws last June in order to address this, requiring nations to take “rapid” coordinated action.
Treaty on Pandemics
To assist prevent a recurrence of the shortcomings revealed by COVID, nations agreed in December 2021 to begin developing an agreement on pandemic prevention, readiness, and response.
The 194 member states of the WHO have largely reached an agreement on what should be included after multiple rounds of negotiations, but there are still a few issues.
Western countries with significant pharmaceutical industry sectors and poorer nations afraid of becoming marginalized again form a crucial fault line.
One unresolved matter is the suggested requirement to promptly disseminate newly discovered viruses and the resulting pandemic-fighting advantages, such as vaccines.
The deal-making deadline has been rescheduled for May 2025, one year later.
Looking for next threats
Experts from around the world have been putting a lot of effort into figuring out the source of the next pandemic threat.
Imperial College London virologist Tom Peacock told AFP that any threat of an H5N1 bird flu pandemic should be “very carefully” considered.
More than 200 independent experts were assigned by the WHO to assess 1,652 diseases, primarily viruses. Over thirty priority pathogens were identified.
These included the ones that cause Zika, MERS, Lassa disease, Ebola, Marburg, and COVID-19.
“Disease X”—a stand-in for a pathogen that is presently unknown to cause illness in humans—is also on the list.
The present plans seek to gather general information, instruments, and defenses that can be quickly modified to address new threats.
-Raja Aditya
