WHO sounds alarm over pandemic readiness as global disparities persist

Sub: IR

Sec: Int Org

Context:

Five years after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the question remains whether the world is adequately prepared for the next pandemic.
Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s pandemic preparedness director, emphasized that the next outbreak is inevitable, but the world is still not fully prepared for a large-scale infectious disease crisis.

Key Challenges:

Inequality in Access: Disparities persist in access to funding, vaccines, and healthcare tools, especially in low-income countries.
Vaccine Hesitancy: The spread of misinformation has increased vaccine hesitancy, which could hinder responses to future pandemics.
Detection and Response Speed: Public health agencies still need 4-5 years to upgrade systems for faster detection and response.

Global Initiatives and Mitigation Efforts:

WHO’s Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence Hub (Berlin): Focuses on collaborative surveillance to detect threats early and mitigate them.
World Bank’s Pandemic Fund: Issued $885 million in grants for pandemic-related projects since 2022, targeting 75 countries.
Technology Transfer Hubs: mRNA vaccine hub in South Africa and a bio-manufacturing training hub in South Korea to boost local production and responses.
Amendment of International Health Regulations (June 2023): WHO introduced a higher “pandemic emergency” level requiring quicker, coordinated actions by nations.
Drafting a Global Pandemic Accord (2021): Negotiations began for an international agreement on pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response under WHO.

Identifying Future Pandemic Threats:

WHO’s Pathogen Evaluation: Over 200 scientists evaluated 1,652 pathogens, identifying 30+ priority threats, including COVID-19, Ebola, H5N1, and “Disease X” (a potential unknown pathogen).