The World Health Organisation (WHO) has issued a warning to the global community, urging preparedness for a disease more lethal than COVID-19.
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director-General of WHO, delivered this message on Monday during the annual meeting of its 194 member states in Geneva, Switzerland. He unveiled a new global initiative aimed at identifying and monitoring the most hazardous pathogens.
Addressing the World Health Assembly forum, Dr Tedros emphasized the urgency of confronting an imminent public health crisis rather than deferring it for the future.
He acknowledged that while the darkest days of the pandemic are now behind us, the potential for a doomsday variant of COVID-19 to emerge still exists, which could reset the world’s progress back to square one.
Dr Tedros stated, “The risk of another variant emerging, leading to fresh waves of disease and fatalities, persists. Additionally, there is a looming danger of a novel pathogen emerging with even greater lethal potential.”
Although specific diseases were not mentioned, the UN agency’s list of imminent threats includes “Disease X,” a term used to describe a devastating pathogen that has not yet been identified.
These comments by Dr Tedros come several weeks after WHO declared that COVID-19 no longer posed a public health emergency of international concern.
Instead, the virus is now recognized as an established and ongoing health issue that demands continuous attention and management.