FUTURE PANDEMICS: AGENTS, POTENTIAL AND IMPACTS

ABSTRACT

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has changed the dimensions of human life. This new novel coronavirus has taken the world through a plethora of challenges affecting the health, economy, social and global security. As of 25 May 2021, with the death of 34, 72, 068 people and 167, 011, 807 affected, it’s high time to focus on measures to save future generations. The covid vaccination drive has started and the WHO approved vaccines are Oxford-AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech, Sinopharm-BBIBP, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson. Dated 23 May 2021, a total of 1, 489, 727, 128 vaccine doses have been administered worldwide. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has put forward the concept of an integrated One Health approach to public health, animal health and the environment, during the opening of the 27thTripartite Annual Executive Committee Meeting World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) to prevent future pandemics (17 February 2021). Four international organizations - the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Health Organization (WHO) will operate under One Health approach to identify the links between the health of people, animals, and the environment. This will contribute to safeguard the human race. He also warned about the possibility of the next pandemic threat - Disease X and other zoonotic diseases which could arise anytime. According to the WHO chief, the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated “intimate” linkages between the health of humans, animals and ecosystems, as zoonotic diseases spread between animals and people. For combatting the next pandemic, the World Health Organisation (WHO) prepared a global strategy for a pandemic response, the research and development (R&D) Blueprint. This R&D Blueprint has a list of identified priority diseases and a roadmap response plan for each of them. The diseases which pose a significant public health risk because of their potential to cause pandemics, as well as the lack of sufficient countermeasures against these (diseases), includes Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF), MERS, SARS, Ebola, Nipah and several other dangerous infectious diseases. In this chapter, we will discuss some priority diseases which could arise as a future pandemic. © 2022 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc.