The WHO chief has warned of the danger of a new pandemic deadlier than the spread of COVID-19 around the world. North-Western State Medical University (NWSMU) epidemiologist Batyrbek Aslanov named after II Mechnikova told Russian media what factors can affect the emergence of dangerous pathogens and what measures mankind should take.
The world could be threatened by the emergence of a new pandemic, more dangerous than COVID-19, said the Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Ghebreyesus, during the annual assembly of WHO in Geneva.
“The threat of another variant (COVID) that could lead to further outbreaks of disease and death remains. There also remains the threat of a new pathogen with even deadlier potential. said head of WHO. At the same time, the official called on the world to be ready to give this threat a collective response.
As head of the Department of Epidemiology, Parasitology and Disinfectology at North-Western State Medical University named after II Mechnikov Batyrbek Aslanov, the risks of a new pandemic are associated with a number of factors. “There are certain prerequisites, these are all processes related to climate change, human economic activity and the development of new territories. If we do not take into account the biological risks that these processes carry, we can indeed face various epidemics of infectious diseases. You have to remember that, and it’s hard to say now how much more or less dangerous they can be,” Aslanov believes.
At the same time, according to him, global warming can lead to the emergence of pathogens, known and not encountered before. “Some pathogens may be associated with global warming. It is highly likely that such outbreaks will happen again, such as the anthrax outbreak in Yamal in 2016. These may be unknown microorganisms. Because several studies, including ours, show that genetic material of various microorganisms that we do not yet know is found in permafrost. Therefore, we absolutely have to monitor the biological risks,” the expert said.
According to him, infections that have the greatest epidemic potential, that is, the ability to spread quickly, which depends on a number of factors, pose the greatest danger. “If the infection is transmitted by airborne droplets, of course, the rate of spread is higher and, of course, there is more need to be wary of precisely those infections which can rapidly spread populations” , Aslanov added.
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