The Worst Of Ebola May Be Waning But Flu, Drug-Resistant Superbugs Still Lurk

The worst-ever Ebola epidemic is waning, but after ravaging three West African nations and spreading fear from Dallas to Madrid, it has hammered home the message that the world needs a better detective system for emerging diseases.  Risks posed by pandemic threats such as deadly strains of flu and drug-resistant superbugs have shot up the agenda of global security issues at this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos as politicians and scientists grapple with the lessons from an Ebola outbreak that has killed more than 8,600 people.  One thing is certain: more epidemics are coming and dense urban living, coupled with modern travel, will accelerate future infectious disease outbreaks.

“Viruses do not need visas to get across borders,” said World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General Margaret Chan, who admitted the international response in future needed to be much better co-ordinated.  Her own organisation has been criticised for failing to move faster to tackle Ebola and has acknowledged that it lacked the staff and tools to fight the epidemic adequately early on.  Part of that is down to a failure to learn from the past.

After the 2009 H1N1 swine flu pandemic, a WHO review committee called for an internationally-funded “global public health reserve workforce” to be set up, as well as a contingency fund for emergencies and revamped research.  The plea was ignored at the time, but it is finally getting attention.  “The whole world needs a new early-warning system for these diseases,” said Alpha Conde, the president of Guinea — where Ebola went undetected for three months in early 2014...