Epidemiology Expert Warns: Gaps in Early Detection of Viruses Threaten the World

SadaNews - An epidemiology expert warned that the lethal outbreaks of Hanta and Ebola viruses reveal that despite improved responses to declared public health crises, awareness of pandemic risks remains weak.

More than six years after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic, global efforts to reform public health crisis response mechanisms have improved the handling of outbreaks of Hanta and Ebola viruses, according to Helen Clark, former Prime Minister of New Zealand and co-chair of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response.

In an interview with AFP in Geneva, she stated, "The new health regulations are working effectively."

Once the international health agency issued its warning last Friday regarding the outbreak of a new Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the world heard a few weeks ago about the outbreak of Hanta virus on the cruise ship MV Hondius in the Atlantic Ocean, "the response was very good," according to Clark.

The Real Source of Disease Spread

She added, "Our problem now lies with the real source of that," emphasizing the need to make more efforts to identify the risks and how "these diseases spread."

She continued, "I believe we need to enhance knowledge related to readiness based on risk assessment," calling for greater focus on understanding potential risks and "what may emerge" and "being prepared to deal with that."

She added, "We have not yet reached... those fundamental issues related to surveillance and early detection."

Clark indicated that the Hanta strain responsible for the outbreak aboard the cruise ship is raising global concern following the deaths of three people, endemic to an area in Argentina where the ship departed.

She added, "But we are not sure how aware the ships that regularly leave from there are about this."

The outbreak of the Bondibogio strain of the Ebola virus in a remote region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where it is believed to have killed over 130 people, went undetected for weeks, as tests focused on another strain that returned negative results.

Clark questioned, "How could that continue for four to six weeks while the disease was spreading without obtaining the necessary test results to confirm it was caused by a specific strain?"

She called for a thorough investigation into "the sequence of events and what we can learn from them, and what they reveal about the capabilities we need."

Cumulative Dangerous Factors

Clark emphasized that the outbreak of Ebola, in particular, clearly highlighted the dangerous impact of significant cuts in global aid on disease prevention efforts.

She warned of a "cumulative risk factors," pointing out that countries "are now suddenly expected to fill a large part of the investments in health systems that previously came from donors."

"With all the goodwill in the world, the poorest and most fragile countries simply do not have enough money to do this, so things will be neglected in many areas," she said.

Clark viewed that "global solidarity remains immensely important."

She explained, "We are talking about global public goods," referring to a confirmed case of Ebola in an American citizen, and how "the Hanta virus has appeared in places where passengers from the ship disembarked."

She affirmed, "We are in this together, so we need to seek ways to fund preparedness or response that reflect our common interests."