WHO seeks ‘best minds’ to probe new pathogens that move from animals to humans

GENEVA, Aug.20 (Reuters) – The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday it was seeking the best scientific minds to advise on investigations into new high-risk pathogens that pass from animals to humans and could trigger the next pandemic.

Calling for nominations, he said his scientific advisory group on the origins of new pathogens will also review the progress of upcoming studies on the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that emerged in China in late 2019.

“We have to bring the best minds here. And it has to be multidisciplinary,” Maria van Kerkhove, head of WHO’s emerging diseases and zoonoses unit, told Reuters.

The panel, announced by WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in July, will consist of 25 experts who are expected to meet for the first time virtually at the end of September, according to a statement.

“Over the past 20 years, many of these pathogens have emerged or reappeared: SARS, MERS, various avian influenza, Zika, yellow fever and of course SARS-CoV-2,” said van Kerkhove.

Van Kerkhove, American epidemiologist and WHO technical officer on COVID-19, recalled that it took more than a year to establish that camels were the intermediate source of the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) carried by bats.

The new group would establish a global framework for studies in animals, humans, food, environment, biosecurity and protocols for laboratory audits when new pathogens emerge, she said.

“Considering the geopolitics of all of this, we want to make sure we have a very solid technical and scientific framework (…) for the next time, because there will be a next time,” she said.

A WHO-led team of experts spent four weeks in and around the central city of Wuhan with Chinese scientists and said in a joint report in March that the SARS-CoV-2 virus was likely transmitted from bald people. -mouse to humans by another animal, but more research was needed.

The WHO has urged all countries to work together to investigate the origins of the virus, but China has publicly rejected plans for more checks on laboratories and markets in its territory.

Tedros said the investigation was hampered by the lack of raw data on the first days of the spread there.

Van Kerkhove said Chinese officials recently made public statements about the pursuit of studies.

Among the most critical are the serological studies testing for the antibodies present there in 2019, she said, adding, “I would love to see more animal studies being sold in the market, going up.”

Reporting by Stéphanie Nebehay; edited by Jonathan Oatis

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