100 years after ‘Spanish flu’, new global pandemics feared

– Preparing for catastrophe –

Experts also warned of the economic impact of outbreaks.

In 2015 hundreds of cases of the MERS respiratory syndrome cost South Korea 10 billion dollars, Hatchett said.

Billionaire philanthropist and Microsoft founder Bill Gates estimated in February 2017 that preparing to respond to a global pandemic would cost $3.4 billion a year.

The potential cost of one if the world is unprepared could be $570 billion, he said.

Gates is one of the main backers of the CEPI, which has overall funding of $700 million and was launched at last year’s Davos summit.

The CEPI is seeking to develop treatments for three viruses for which there is currently none: MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome), Lassa fever which is endemic in West Africa, and Nipah in Malaysia and Bangladesh.

“At the WHO, we are trying to prepare for a catastrophe, hoping to reduce the impact as much as possible,” said Briand.

Developing a vaccine against a new virus, however, is dangerous and can take up to six months, the WHO says.

It costs up to $200 million, says Peter Piot, director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

That is not a big motivation for pharmaceutical laboratories, Hatchett said.

“There is no commercial market for these products until there is an epidemic and then everyone wants the vaccine that doesn’t exist.”