Experts have recently warned in ‘A World At Risk’ report that a flu-like illness could travel around the world in just 36 hours and kill 80 million people.
About a century ago, the Spanish flu pandemic infected one-third of the world’s population and took the lives of 50 million people.
If a similar outbreak happens today, the effects could be worse, according to the report.
The report was produced by the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board, a team of health experts led by the former chief of the World Health Organization.
“The threat of a pandemic spreading around the globe is a real one,’ the group said in a report released today,” the experts said in a report.
“A quick-moving pathogen has the potential to kill tens of millions of people, disrupt economies and destabilise national security.”
The ‘A World At Risk’ report said that current efforts to prepare for outbreaks are ‘grossly insufficient.’
The group is headed by Mr. Alhadj As Sy, the secretary-general of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, and Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, the former director-general of the WHO and the former Norwegian prime minister.
It is reported that the recommendations it made in previous reports have been ignored by world leaders. The GPMB wrote: “Many of the recommendations reviewed were poorly implemented, or not implemented at all, and serious gaps persist.
“’For too long, we have allowed a cycle of panic and neglect when it comes to pandemics: we ramp up efforts when there is a serious threat, then quickly forget about them when the threat subsides. It is well past time to act.”
The report also came with a map of the world with a list of possible infections that could trigger the outbreak.
These were split into ‘re-emerging’ and ‘newly emerging.’ Among the latter were the Nipah , Zika, and Ebola viruses, and 5 types of flu.
The former included human monkeypox, Dengue, Yellow fever, measles, antibiotic resistance, West Nile virus, plague and acute flaccid myelitis.
“There is a very real threat of a rapidly moving, highly lethal pandemic of a respiratory pathogen killing 50 to 80million people and wiping out nearly five per cent of the world’s economy.
“A global pandemic on that scale would be catastrophic, creating widespread havoc, instability and insecurity. The world is not prepared.”
They also said that many national health systems, especially in poor countries, would collapse in the case of a pandemic.
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