Debora MacKenzie
Attempts to agree a treaty to manage future pandemics risk losing momentum, health leaders gathered at the World Health Assembly warned, as fears grow over outbreaks of bird flu in the US and mpox in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Crowded cities, global travel and climate change heighten the risk from zoonotic viruses – those transmitted between humans and animals – raising the spectre of another pandemic like COVID-19, or worse.
Scientists are particularly concerned about growing cases of bird flu – known as H5N1 – among US cattle, and an outbreak of mpox – formerly known as monkeypox – raging in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“We have H5N1 knocking on the door,” said Ayoade Alakija, chair of FIND, a nonprofit in Geneva that promotes the development of diagnostic technology.
“We don’t have time to wait.”
The US Centers for Disease Control has warned of an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo of a strain of mpox – known as clade I mpox – which is significantly more severe than the clade II strain which spread around the world in 2022.
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