Pandemic Threats

Future outbreaks of infectious diseases may be inevitable, but we can stop them becoming pandemics by strengthening early-warning and response systems for known and emerging pathogens.

COVID-19 has shown our global vulnerability to pandemics and the vital role of testing as one of our first lines of defence against infectious diseases.

Although the threat of a global pandemic has always been present, global funding for pandemic preparedness prior to COVID-19 had been reactionary and not well sustained. Diagnostics have always been the cornerstone for early warning, response and containment, yet they remain chronically inappropriate for global needs. Significant diagnostic gaps remain for six of the ten WHO R&D Blueprint priority diseases, including an as-yet-unidentified disease X – the name given to a pathogen currently not known to cause human disease that could cause a serious international epidemic in the future.

However, COVID-19 has pushed pandemic preparedness up the policy agenda, giving global attention to the importance of diagnostics and testing data to drive public heath decision-making and control transmission, keeping people, communities and economies safe. COVID-19 has also shown us the importance of fit-for-purpose, integrated testing networks that extend from the community through to hospitals and laboratory services, which can enable people to get tested when and where they need it. It has demonstrated the importance of bolstering genomic sequencing capacity for rapid pathogen and variant identification – essential to quickly spot new variants that may evade diagnostic tests, treatments or vaccines, and enable fast development of new tools or modifications to existing ones.