Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, last week, World Health Organisation’s director-general Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus said the organisation is calling on countries to sign on to its pandemic treaty so that the world can address a new ‘common enemy’ – ‘Disease X’.
Also read: City calls for vigilance in the season of diarrhoeal disease
Disease X is a hypothetical pathogen that has not yet been formed, but may one day. It is a ‘placeholder’ virus that the WHO uses to refer to an unknown infectious condition that is capable of causing a serious epidemic or pandemic.
‘There are things that are unknown that may happen, and anything happening is a matter of when, not if, so we need to have a placeholder for that, for the diseases we don’t know,’ explained Dr Ghebreyesus.
The term was added to the WHO’s short list of pathogens for research in 2017. According to Dr Ghebreyesus, Covid-19 was the first Disease X, which stands as a testament to the need for increased cooperation between countries to suppress outbreaks before they go global.
‘The pandemic agreement can bring all the experience, all the challenges that we have faced and all the solutions [during the pandemic] into one,’ he said. ‘That agreement can help us to prepare for the future in a better way.’
Cape {town} Etc discount: Looking for things to do in the city at half the price? Let these offers inspire you! Get them here.
The treaty was first proposed in March 2021, with a draft made available in October 2023, reported Daily Mail.
‘The main goal of this treaty would be to foster an all-of-government and all-of-society approach, strengthening national, regional and global capacities and resilience to future pandemics,’ Fox 32 reported a statement put out by two dozen heads of state as saying.
‘This includes greatly enhancing international cooperation to improve, for example, alert systems, data-sharing, research and local, regional and global production and distribution of medical and public health countermeasures such as vaccines, medicines, diagnostics and personal protective equipment.
Member states are now negotiating over the text of the agreement before another version is made available in May this year, Daily Mail added.
Explore Cape Town and its surroundings with these incredible deals on cars for under R100 000. Find car listings here.
Also read:
Jeffrey Epstein’s court documents have been released to the public
Picture: Fusion Medical Animation / Unsplash
