Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the World Health Organization, has warned of a potential new pandemic, asserting that “its outbreak is just a matter of time.” American media outlets have reported Ghebreyesus’s statement at the World Government Summit in Dubai, where he emphasized that the question regarding “Disease X” is not if it will hit the world, but when, indicating that a pandemic is inevitable.
“Disease X” has not spread yet, but the World Health Organization uses this term to refer to unknown infectious cases that could potentially cause a pandemic or epidemic if they spread to multiple countries, with predictions that it could be 20 times more deadly than COVID.
The director of the international organization clarified that he had issued a similar warning in 2018 about the possibility of a pandemic, which proved to be correct with the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus.
Ghebreyesus stressed that the world is still not prepared to face a new pandemic, reiterating his request for a global treaty on preparedness and response for the upcoming pandemic by May, describing such a treaty as “crucially important for humanity.” He had warned in October that the mistakes of the past should not be repeated in dealing with future epidemic outbreaks.
This was stated in a post on his official page on the “X” site, where he mentioned that “the emergence of the next pandemic is not just a possibility but a matter of time.” Ghebreyesus mentioned that the member states of the World Health Organization are negotiating to reach a new agreement on dealing with epidemics and making adjustments to the organization’s regulatory procedures, adding that negotiations are also underway to strengthen the legal framework for the global response to epidemics.
The director of the World Health Organization also sent a message to the Inter-Parliamentary Union to support the negotiations in this regard so that an agreed-upon formula can be reached during the upcoming meetings of the World Health Assembly, which includes the member states of the organization, scheduled to be held in May.
