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- The World Health Organization has sounded the alarm over the lack of preparedness of the world in the face of a global flu pandemic.
- It is said that the cost of preventing such a crisis is less than 1% of the cost of the response.
- The World Economic Forum and Bill Gates echoed the concerns of WHO.
The Spanish flu killed up to 100 million people during its 1918-19 attack, making it a more deadly than the First World War.
And while drugs have progressed since then, the risk of another devastating global epidemic is not a question of whether, but when, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned.
"The current risk of a new influenza virus transmitted from animals to humans that is likely to cause a pandemic is real," said WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus this week to mark the publication of the Global Strategy. influenza for 2019-2030.
"We must be vigilant and prepared: the cost of a major influenza epidemic will far exceed the price of prevention."
"A severe pandemic can lead to millions of deaths worldwide, with widespread social and economic effects, including a loss of national economic productivity and a significant economic burden for affected citizens and communities."
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The WHO warned that if the overall cost of pandemic preparedness was around US $ 4.5 billion (UA 6.4 billion), the estimated cost of responding to a medium to severe pandemic would be around US $ 500 billion. (AU 707.2 billion).
"A severe pandemic can lead to millions of deaths worldwide, with widespread social and economic effects, including a loss of national economic productivity and a severe economic burden for affected citizens and communities," said WHO. .
In its strategy, the WHO added that the cost of preparation is actually less than 1 US dollar per person per year, but warned that many countries have largely under-invested in health systems for the early detection, intervention and containment.
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WHO's 11-year plan would allow governments to create national programs designed to reduce seasonal influenza, reduce the risk of animal-human transmission and mitigate the effects of a pandemic.
"Thanks to the partnerships and efforts we have made over the years over the years, the world is better prepared than ever for the next big epidemic, but we are still not sufficiently prepared," Tedros said.
"This strategy aims to bring us to this point. Basically, it is about preparing health systems to manage shocks, which only happens when health systems are strong and healthy. "
"People rightly worry about dangers such as terrorism and climate change (and, further, an asteroid hitting the Earth). But if something is going to kill tens of millions of people in a short time, it will probably be a global epidemic. "
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WHO is not alone in sounding the alarm against the risk of a pandemic.
<p class = "canvas-atom-text-canvas Mb (1.0em) Mb (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm" type = "text" content = "Bill Gates, entrepreneur and co-founder of Microsoft, admitted the threat of an influenza pandemic keeps him awake at night."data-reactid =" 44 "> Bill Gates, a billionaire entrepreneur and co-founder of Microsoft, admitted that the threat of an influenza pandemic prevented him from sleeping at night.
"People rightly worry about dangers such as terrorism and climate change (and, further, an asteroid hitting the Earth). But if something were to kill tens of millions of people in a short time, it would probably be a global epidemic, "he wrote in his personal blog.
"And the disease would most likely be a form of flu because the flu virus is easily transmitted by air. Today, an influenza as contagious and lethal as that of 1918 would have killed nearly 33 million people in just six months. "
<p class = "canvas-atom text-canvas Mb (1.0em) Mb (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm" type = "text" content = "The World Economic Forum also warned that the world was "very poorly prepared for biological threats, even the most modest ones". "data-reactid =" 47 "> The World Economic Forum also warned that the world was" very under-prepared for biological threats, even the most modest ones ".
"The frequency of epidemics is steadily increasing. Between 1980 and 2013, 12,012 outbreaks were recorded, representing 44 million individual cases and affecting every country in the world, "said the forum in its report Risks World 2019.
In June 2018, six of the eight disease categories on the WHO list of priority diseases appeared for the first time. If any of them had spread widely, it could have potentially killed thousands of people and created a major global disruption. "
He warned that globalization, deforestation and high density life are all to blame.
And he referred to studies concluding that the cost of an influenza pandemic would reach 570 billion US dollars (806.3 billion Australian dollars) in one year: "Same order of magnitude as climate change."
"The flu affects all countries, communities and individuals," summarized WHO.
"Seasonal influenza viruses will continue to circulate and influenza viruses with pandemic potential will continue to appear. This strategy calls on all countries and all partners to prioritize the implementation of influenza programs as an investment for further strengthening of the health system and better pandemic preparedness. "
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