KUALA LUMPUR – World Health Organisation (WHO) director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has warned the global community to prepare to fight “Disease X”, the next potential pandemic, amid a lack of preparation at present.
Speaking during a forum on preparing for the next pandemic at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, yesterday, Tedros described the recent Covid-19 pandemic as the first Disease X, saying that it will happen again.
“Of course there are some people who say, oh, this may create panic. No, it’s better, actually, to anticipate something that may happen, because it has happened in our history many times, and prepare for it,” he was quoted as saying according to a report by UAE’s The National yesterday.
Disease X was coined by the WHO as a currently unknown infectious condition that is capable of causing an epidemic or – if it spreads across multiple countries – a pandemic.
It first appeared on WHO’s list of priority diseases in 2018, the year before Covid-19 emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
The Covid-19 pandemic, Tedros said, taught the world many lessons in dealing with the next pandemic.
Back in 2021, WHO reportedly drafted plans to create a pandemic treaty that would serve as a blueprint to tackle future global pandemics.
While Tedros said the pandemic treaty would serve as a key to protecting the world from future outbreaks, countries continue to wrangle over the terms of the treaty, which have yet to be finalised.
“Member states are negotiating. This is between countries, and I hope they will deliver this pandemic agreement by that time, on the deadline, because if this generation cannot do it, where they have first-hand experience, I don’t think the next generation will do it,” he was quoted as saying.
“For our children and grandchildren’s sake, I think we have to convert all the lessons we have learned into this pandemic and prepare the world for the future.
“This is a common global interest, and very narrow national interests should not get in the way.”
Meanwhile, during the same session at the forum, AstraZeneca board chairman Michel Demare said countries have not spent enough money to prepare for the next pandemic.
“In OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries, the average spend on prevention is 3% of the budget of health systems.
“Obviously, if you spend so little on prevention, you end up spending the majority of your budget on hospitalisation and only treatments.
“So there is a lot of change that needs to happen there,” he was quoted as saying. – January 18, 2024