Preparing for pandemics - Scientists look to the future
(7 Mar 2021) LEAD IN: Scientists say it's when, not if we have another pandemic and countries around the world should begin preparing if the world is to avoid a new deadly infection taking hold in populations. They say urbanisation and our increasing habitation near animals brings us closer to viruses which can spill over to humans. STORY-LINE: At this laboratory in London they're testing samples taken from people on human challenge trials. This is where healthy volunteers are exposed to pathogens so scientists can learn more about diseases and test vaccines. SARS-COV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is one of the viruses being studied here. Around the world vaccines are offering people some light at the end of the tunnel, but in the long term scientist say it's a matter of time before another virus puts us at risk. Dr. Andrew Catchpole is a virologist and Chief Scientific Officer for hVIVO Open Orphan, a company which recruits and carries out trials with governments and universities. Animals are also affected by a range of coronaviruses and are often without visible symptoms, asymptomatic. Catchpole says SARS-COV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, caught many in the medical and scientific community by surprise because other coronaviruses had not been unknowingly transmitted from person to person. "It wasn't clear whether it had true pandemic potential, most of us virologists believed that they did because even before SARS 1 we have been living with coronaviruses actually for many decades they just caused common colds so people don't even know their name, don't even realise they're having them because the disease they cause is so mild. So any virus which causes a disease like that and transmits, and is with us all the time, the family of viruses always have then pandemic if there are related viruses in animals and indeed with coronaviruses there are," says Catchpole. There is a weariness among populations with the virus breaking apart, families, businesses and threatening economies. In some locations protestors are demanding a return to a life they find more easily recognisable. The pandemic is far from over, even as vaccines are reaching some countries, others are experiencing a spike in infections. Even so scientists warn that COVID-19 may not be the last pandemic the world sees. "There will be future pandemics. I mean, clearly everything has changed and this has been a game changer in terms of how we're going to view pandemics in the future and how we are going to need to be much better prepared," says Lawrence Young, the Professor of Molecular Oncology, at University of Warwick's Medical School. We've experienced epidemics of other coronaviruses which have crossed over from animals to humans, but SARS and MERS did not become a threat to health worldwide. Professor Danny Altmann of Imperial College London is Associate Editor of the peer reviewed journal Vaccine. "We'd had pandemic flu preparation, and then the response to SARS and then the response to MERS, and yet somehow we were still able to watch the emergence of this like a slow motion car crash," he says. According to the US Centers for Disease Control severe acute respiratory syndrome, known as SARS and caused by the SARS-CoV-1 virus, was recognized as a global threat in March 2003, after first appearing in Southern China in November 2002 The World Health Organisation (WHO) calculates that during November 2002 through July 2003, a total of 8,098 people worldwide became sick with SARS and 774 people died of it. That disease is caused by the MERS-CoV virus. Young agrees. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: / ap_archive Facebook: / aparchives Instagram: / apnews You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...
