A new survey among leading global infectious disease experts conducted by Abbott shows that most experts agree that pandemic preparedness has improved since the COVID-19 pandemic, but significant gaps remain in building surveillance programs to identify emerging pathogens, public health funding, and adequate testing infrastructure.
The Abbott Pandemic Defense Coalition asked 103 epidemiologists and virologists if and how much COVID-19 prepared the world to better handle another pandemic. The anonymous survey was conducted between April 2024 and June 2024.
Ninety percent of respondents said that, as a whole, the world is better prepared to fight the next pandemic, and 75% said the next major global health challenge will likely occur in the next 5 to 25 years.
Most concerning for future pandemics, they say, are mosquito-borne pathogens and viral pathogens that emerge and mutate along the animal-human interface. More than 60% said mosquito-borne diseases remain the biggest threat to public health as the climate changes and warms, leading to increased transmission of the Zika, dengue, and West Nile viruses.
According to the press release from Abbott, scientists predict that Zika could affect 1.3 billion people by 2050, and dengue could affect 61% of the world’s population by 2080.
Temperature increases and extreme weather events are impacting how humans, animals and insects interact and we are finding mosquito-borne viruses in new places.
"Temperature increases and extreme weather events are impacting how humans, animals and insects interact and we are finding mosquito-borne viruses in new places," said Jorge Osorio, DVM, PhD, a professor and director of the Global Health Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "As these viruses appear in more parts of the world, we need a globally coordinated effort to share learnings from countries who have been successfully managing these illnesses."
Readiness challenged by distrust
The misinformation that spread widely on social media during the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing distrust in public health officials are the main worries many respondents cited when asked about maintaining readiness for the next pandemic. A lack of funding for public health institutions was the second biggest concern.
When considering the next major pandemic, almost all (96.1%) of those polled thought it was very likely to be spread via the air.
Disease surveillance remained the most important tool for identifying the next pandemic, with viral surveillance and wastewater surveillance the top two areas to invest in, respondents said.
"Just as scientists have developed sophisticated monitoring systems to track emerging storms and hurricanes, our job as virus hunters is to identify pathogens that have the potential to spark outbreaks in order to stay one step ahead," said Gavin Cloherty, PhD, head of infectious disease research at Abbott and of the Abbott Pandemic Defense Coalition. "Disease surveillance acts as our radar, helping us prioritize which viruses are most likely to trigger an outbreak and where those outbreaks may occur."
