Last week the World Health Organisation inaugurated the Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence in Berlin, Germany. It aims to help the world better anticipate and prevent future pandemics. The Hub, to quote WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, will offer “new, powerful systems and tools for global surveillance to collect, analyse and disseminate data on outbreaks with the potential to become epidemics and pandemics.” And, bringing together diverse partnerships from several disciplines, the data and intelligence will be shared for the common good. Covid-19 was a wake-up call, particularly given the patchy world response, and despite a pandemic such as this one having long been predicted. The Hub, therefore, arises from lessons learned. Germany has provided an initial $100 million investment for the new initiative, which will be headed by Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, currently Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control. The choice of an African to head the initiative is welcome. Other than the capability he clearly possesses, the recognition might also indicate intent to better include the continent. Africa certainly has much to offer. As the pandemic was reaching its height in July last year, a report by the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) noted how the African experience could help prevent and respond to future pandemics. The continent has already experienced and successfully responded to a number of zoonotic epidemics, the most recent being the Ebola outbreaks. Zoonotic diseases (also known as zoonoses) are spread from animals to people. Aside from Ebola, others include the West Nile fever and Rift Valley fever. The continent’s experience could potentially be leveraged to tackle future outbreaks through approaches that incorporate human, animal and environmental health. The UNEP report identifies the One Health approach as an optimal way in the prevention and response. The approach unites public health, veterinary and environmental expertise in responding to zoonotic disease outbreaks and pandemics. While Africa could offer lessons, it still has major challenges to contend with, and therefore the concern whether its gains may not be in vain. The concern emanates from the continent being home to a large portion of the world’s remaining intact rainforests and other wildlands. The continent is also home to the world’s fastest-growing human population, leading to an increase in encounters between livestock and wildlife and in turn, the risk of zoonotic diseases. Every year, some two million people, mostly in low- and middle-income countries, including from Africa, die from neglected zoonotic diseases. The same outbreaks can cause severe illness, deaths, and productivity losses among livestock populations in the developing world, a major problem that keeps hundreds of millions of small-scale farmers in severe poverty. In the last two decades alone, zoonotic diseases have caused economic losses of more than $100 billion, not including the cost of the COVID-19 pandemic, which is expected to reach $9 trillion over the next few years. For this reason, the new WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence will be for much more than anticipating future pandemics. It could be an early warning system that could help save livelihoods. But also of great importance are the complementary roles the intelligence Hub and the One Health approach could play reinforcing each other – the one contributing technology and data, and the other the public health, veterinary and environmental expertise. In the meantime, governments have a role to take active measures to prevent other zoonotic diseases from crossing into the human population. Among recommendations in the UNEP report to prevent future pandemics, governments are urged to invest in interdisciplinary approaches. Another is to improve biosecurity and control and identify key drivers of emerging diseases in animal husbandry while encouraging proven management and zoonotic disease control measures.
