PandemicsWorld Unprepared for Pandemic: WHO
The next deadly pandemic could spread within thirty-six hours, disrupt economies and destabilize national security, WHO and World Bank experts have said. The experts said current efforts to manage a pandemic are “grossly insufficient.” Epidemic-prone viral diseases such as Ebola, SARS, and the flu have become increasingly difficult to control, as long-term armed conflicts, forced migration, and weak and failed states become more commonplace in the world, the report warned.
The next deadly pandemic could spread within thirty-six hours, disrupt economies and destabilize national security, WHO and World Bank experts have said. The panel said current efforts to manage a pandemic are “grossly insufficient.”
An international panel of experts, working under the auspices of the World Bank and the World Health Organization (WHO), has warned that disease pandemics pose a threat to millions of people and have the potential to harm the global economy.
CNN reports that the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB), a 15-member panel of political leaders, heads of agencies, and experts, released their report on Wednesday. They urged governments to do more to prepare for and mitigate the risks of pandemics.
“The threat of a pandemic spreading around the globe is a real one,” the GPMB said. “A quick-moving pathogen has the potential to kill tens of millions of people, disrupt economies and destabilize national security.”
Epidemic-prone viral diseases such as Ebola, SARS, and the flu have become increasingly difficult to control, as long-term armed conflicts, forced migration, and weak and failed states become more commonplace in the world, the report warned.
“Disease thrives in disorder and has taken advantage — outbreaks have been on the rise for the past several decades and the specter of a global health emergency looms large,” the GPMB said.
Efforts have been made by governments and NGOs to increase preparedness for major disease outbreaks since the last major outbreak of Ebola in West Africa, in 2014-2016, but, the report said that those efforts were still “grossly insufficient.” Current management health and diseases emergency is characterized by “a cycle of panic and neglect,” said Gro Harlem Brundtland, a former WHO head who co-chaired the Board.
Even more troubling, the report found that a large number of national health systems, especially in poor nations, would collapse if confronted by a pandemic.
“Poverty and fragility exacerbate outbreaks of infectious disease and help create the conditions for pandemics to take hold,” said Axel van Trotsenburg, acting chief executive of the World Bank and a member of the panel.
DW reports that the WHO had warned earlier this year of the inevitability of another flu pandemic, one caused by airborne viruses.
The report’s authors pointed to the disease’s last pandemic, the Spanish flu of 1918. The outbreak killed roughly 50 million people.
The group warned that a similar outbreak today would be exacerbated by air travel and could spread throughout the world in less than 36 hours.
“In addition to tragic levels of mortality, such a pandemic could cause panic, destabilize national security and seriously impact the global economy and trade,” the GPMB report warned.
Researchers also warned about the current level of mistrust that governments, scientists, the media, public health, and health workers are facing today.
“The situation is exacerbated by misinformation that can hinder disease control communicated quickly and widely via social media,” the WHO report said. “In the event of a pandemic, such a breakdown in public trust represents a serious threat to the effectiveness of governments and public health workers to manage the crisis.”
