During the World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, issued an alarming global warning that a pandemic much more deadly than the one caused by covid-19 is approaching.
The health professional declared that the world must be prepared to deal correctly with new pathogenic threats that may arise in the future.
Although the end of the coronavirus pandemic was recently announced, health officials from around the world met last Monday to address global health challenges, as they say that far from being overcome, there is a possibility that a new variant could emerge, causing additional waves and deaths.
Health officials also warned of a new pathogen with even more lethal potential, and stressed the need to be prepared to respond decisively.
For this reason, they also called on Tedros to update negotiations on the International Health Regulations, a treaty that outlines preparedness and responses to health crises to prevent the world from ever again facing the devastation of a pandemic such as covid-19.
WHO has already identified “priority” communicable diseases that could cause the next pandemic because of their potential to spread and the lack of effective measures to combat them.
Some of the diseases that WHO claims could trigger another pandemic are Ebola, Marburg, Middle East respiratory syndrome, severe acute respiratory syndrome, covid-19, Zika and the so-called “disease X”, a term used by WHO to refer to a disease caused by a previously unknown pathogen.