A new survey from Abbott shows that leading infectious disease experts around the world believe significant gaps remain in building surveillance programmes to identify emerging pathogens, public health funding and having adequate testing infrastructure capabilities.
Despite this, those surveyed did feel the state of pandemic preparedness around the world has improved since the COVID-19 pandemic.
The survey, commissioned by the Abbott Pandemic Defense Coalition, asked more than 100 experts in virology, epidemiology and infectious diseases around the world about their priorities for addressing the gaps in readiness for disease outbreaks, their views on how the changing environment is impacting infectious diseases, and their suggestions for building a resilient healthcare system capable of identifying and responding to emerging disease outbreaks around the world.
"Just as scientists have developed sophisticated monitoring systems to track emerging storms and hurricanes, our job as virus hunters is to identify pathogens that have the potential to spark outbreaks in order to stay one step ahead," said Gavin Cloherty PhD, Head of Infectious Disease Research at Abbott and head of the Abbott Pandemic Defense Coalition. "Disease surveillance acts as our radar, helping us prioritize which viruses are most likely to trigger an outbreak and where those outbreaks may occur."
When asked to classify the types of pathogens that are most likely to start outbreaks:
- Respondents were evenly split on whether a new pathogen (50%) or changes in a known disease (50%) were a bigger threat for large-scale outbreaks
- Nearly all (94%) believe viral pathogens are most likely to lead to widespread outbreaks, followed by bacteria, fungal and parasitic infections
- A pathogen that is highly transmissible, a novel virus with no tests, treatments or vaccines available, and a virus that can transmit silently are the factors most likely to accelerate a local outbreak into an epidemic or pandemic
- A known pathogen that's now drug resistant to treatments, a virus that causes high mortality, or one with high morbidity were less likely.
The survey also asked infectious disease experts their perspective on the impact changes in the climate could have on the severity and frequency of infectious disease outbreaks, including extreme weather events and where insects and animals live. Experts identified mosquito-borne pathogens (61%) as representing the greatest threat to human health as the climate changes, compared to avian (21%), animal (14%) or tick-born (4%) pathogens.
As part of the survey, respondents were asked to share their priorities for addressing the most urgent gaps in the world’s current state of readiness. Surveillance programs to identify emerging pathogens, funding for public health infrastructure, testing infrastructure capabilities, increasing the numbers of epidemiologists and frontline workers, and diagnostic test development were cited as the top five areas for investment.
Private-public partnerships like the Abbott Pandemic Defense Coalition, a network of more than 20 scientific and public health organizations around the globe, are focused on identifying, tracking and responding to known and emerging disease outbreaks to help prevent the next pandemic. The Coalition also partners with other entities such as the Centers for Research in Emerging Infectious Diseases (CREID) Network, the Global Virus Network (GVN) and the Training Programs in Epidemiology and Public Health Interventions Network (TEPHINET), who have an ongoing commitment to pandemic preparedness, including training the next generation of epidemiologists and having an early detection and rapid response to outbreaks.
Read the full report at https://www.abbott.com/virushunters.html