Prepare for a disease even deadlier than Covid, WHO chief warns

Prepare for a disease even deadlier than Covid, WHO chief warns

Emily Craig

The planet should be ready for a disease even deadlier than Covid, the head of the World Health Organisation warned yesterday.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the World Health Assembly forum that the threat of another public health crisis could not be kicked 'down the road'.

He also claimed that, despite the darkest days of the pandemic being consigned to history, a doomsday Covid variant with the power to send the world back to square one could still spawn. 

In Geneva, Switzerland, Dr Tedros said : 'The threat of another variant emerging that causes new surges of disease and death remains. And the threat of another pathogen emerging with even deadlier potential remains.'

He was speaking as the WHO unveiled a new global scheme to spot and track the most dangerous pathogens at an annual meeting of its 194 member states.

No specific diseases were named. But 'Disease X' — a place-holder given to a devastating pathogen not yet discovered — is on the UN agency's list of pressing threats.

At the WHA's 76th meeting, the WHO launched the International Pathogen Surveillance Network (IPSN). It will give all nations access to genomic sequencing to identify and respond to emerging disease threats using genomics.

Genomics – the study of the genetic material found in a virus – helps scientists spot mutations that can make a pathogen more infectious or deadly. 

Scientists can then develop treatments and vaccines that work against them, while nations can mount a timely response.

The IPSN will see researchers, governments, charitable foundations and the private sector work together to monitor bugs.

Dr Tedros said: 'We cannot kick this can down the road.

'When the next pandemic comes knocking – and it will – we must be ready to answer decisively, collectively and equitably.'

The WHO has identified nine priority diseases that pose the biggest risk to public health. They were deemed to be most risky due to a lack of treatments or their ability to cause a pandemic.

Covid is on the list, along with Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever, a disease transmitted by ticks which kills 30 per cent of those it hospitalises.

Ebola, which kills around half of those it infects, is another. It causes vomiting, diarrhoea, a rash, yellowing of the skin and eyes and bleeding from multiple orifices, including the eyes, ears and mouth. 

Marburg, one of the deadliest pathogens ever discovered, with a case-fatality ratio of 88 per cent, is also a threat. It causes similar symptoms to Ebola.

Lassa fever, which is mild or causes no symptoms in 80 per cent of cases, kills around 1 to 3 per cent of those it infects. It is endemic in parts of West Africa but just 11 cases and one death have been recorded in the UK.

Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) are also on the WHO's pandemic watch-list.

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