Governments and researchers around the globe are being called upon to strengthen and accelerate preparations for the next pandemic by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
WHO—alongside the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI)—are emphasising the importance of expanding research to include entire families of pathogens than can infect humans, as well as focusing on individual pathogens.
In a report released at this year’s Global Pandemic Preparedness Summit in Brazil, WHO urges countries to adopt a wider approach. This ultimately aims to create broadly applicable knowledge, tools and countermeasures that can be quickly adapted to emerging threats. Working this way could also speed up surveillance and research to better understand how pathogens are transmitted and how the immune system responds to said infection.
“WHO’s scientific framework for epidemic and pandemic research preparedness is a vital shift in how the world approaches countermeasure development, and one that is strongly supported by CEPI,” explained Dr Richard Hatchett, CEO at the CEPI.
“As presented at the Global Pandemic Preparedness Summit 2024 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, this framework will help steer and coordinate research into entire pathogen families, a strategy that aims to bolster the world’s ability to swiftly respond to unforeseen variants, emerging pathogens, zoonotic spillover, and unknown threats referred to as pathogen X.”
The work underpinning the report featured the insight of more than 200 scientists from over 50 countries. They assessed the evidence pertaining to 28 virus families and one core group of bacteria—encompassing 1652 pathogens. Fundamentally, both WHO and the CEPI want globally coordinated and collaborative research to prepare for the next pandemic.
“History teaches us that the next pandemic is a matter of when, not if. It also teaches us the importance of science and political resolve in blunting its impact,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO’s director-general. “We need that same combination of science and political resolve to come together as we prepare for the next pandemic. Advancing our knowledge of the many pathogens that surround us is a global project requiring the participation of scientists from every country.”
WHO is now engaging with researchers all over the world to establish a Collaborative Open Research Consortium (CORC) for each pathogen family. These consortiums will involve researchers, developers, funders, regulators, trial experts and others to promote better research partnerships and equitable participation.
Image credit: iStock
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