Skip main navigation

New offer! Get 30% off your first 2 months of Unlimited Monthly. Start your subscription for just £29.99 £19.99. New subscribers only. T&Cs apply

Find out more

What can we do better for the pandemics that may come?

Hear from an Africa CDC expert on their advice for future pandemics.
5.2
Could you give about two pieces of advice for what we should do for future pandemics, for what the world should do? So that’s a nice question. So for future pandemics, what I think should be integrated in each and every nation’s kind of public health responses. We need to have routine sequencing for what I can say is common pathogens, because you never know where it will come from, where the next pandemic will come from. Will it be a mutation of one of the current pathogens that we have, or it will be a totally new kind of pathogen, the way it SARS-CoV should up on the global scene?
49.4
So my recommendation would be lets integrate genomics within each and every nation’s public health response, and let it be part of the routine, that you have routine programmes that are carrying out surveillance every now and then. That way you’re able to pick signals, or you should be in a position to pick these pathogens before they spread even beyond your borders. And the responses can be much more smarter if you pick them out enough, unlike when you pick them later and they are spread all over. The responses may be costed in the way that you have to deploy massive investments in trying to respond to these pandemics.

There is always the potential for a disease outbreak to become a pandemic. It’s a scary thought! On this video call, we asked Dr Gerald Mboowa, from the Africa CDC, for his advice for future pandemics.

Want to raise any other questions for our experts? Add them to the comments section.

This article is from the free online

The Power of Genomics to Understand the COVID-19 Pandemic

Created by
FutureLearn - Learning For Life

Reach your personal and professional goals

Unlock access to hundreds of expert online courses and degrees from top universities and educators to gain accredited qualifications and professional CV-building certificates.

Join over 18 million learners to launch, switch or build upon your career, all at your own pace, across a wide range of topic areas.

Start Learning now