DON’T PANIC,
but is the world Overdue for pandemic? – resource poor countries with weak
systems?
‘Microsoft
co-founder Bill Gates, a billionaire philanthropist who is working to eradicate
infectious diseases, warns that the global health community must do more to
prepare for a pandemic.
“Epidemiologists say a fast-moving airborne pathogen
could kill more than 30 million people in less than a year,” he told an
international security conference in Munich in February. “And they say there is
a reasonable probability the world will experience such an outbreak in the next
10 to 15 years.”
Public
health officials say the world is overdue for a pandemic that could kill 30
million people within a year. The possible causes include the expanding and
mobile global population, mutating viruses that can outfox vaccine makers, the
threat of bioterrorism and accelerating climate change that breeds new
diseases. Meanwhile, in the wake of recent outbreaks of the Zika virus in
Brazil, Ebola in Africa and a new strain of bird flu in China, many experts say
the World Health Organization (WHO) and other agencies charged with protecting
against dangerous pathogens are under-resourced and underfunded. But some
experts are more optimistic, saying the global health community has taken
important steps to prevent and respond to pandemics. For example, the United
States has invested in crisis preparation, and WHO set up a global surveillance
network and pandemic emergency fund, these experts note. But gaps in funding
and leadership remain, and many warn that vaccines exist for just a fraction of
the 300 known infectious viruses......’’
@ HRI West Africa
Group - HRI WA
Consultants in
Clinical Governance Implementation
Publisher: Health and
Medical Journals
8 Amaku Street Housing
Estate, Calabar
Cross River State, Nigeria
Cross River State, Nigeria
Joseph Ana has a cumulative continuous practice experience of over 40-years in
Nigeria, United Kingdom and Ghana as a Primary Health Care Physician, Public
Health Expert, General and Urological Surgeon, Health Policy Expert and
Implementer, Medical Educator and Trainer..
A terrifying thought but it can be averted or contained if health systems in the Global south are strengthened before hand.
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