Just a few weeks after the World Health Organization declared the end of the global public health emergency by Covid-19, The WHO has alerted a new threat to health. This Monday the organization warned of “another emerging pathogen with even deadlier potential” and urged the international community to “prepare” for new pandemics.

This was stated by the director general of the WHO, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, during the keynote speech at the 76th World Health Assembly, which aims to “save lives” and “advance health for all.” “If we don’t make the changes that need to be made, who will? And if we don’t make them now, when?” The highest representative of the WHO explained in his address. The leader added that “when the next pandemic arrives, which it will, we must be prepared to respond decisively, collectively and equitably.” According to the WHO, pandemics are far from the only threat facing humanity, but it took it for granted that new pathogens and new pandemics they will arriveTherefore, he urged world leaders to design a strategy to face these challenges.

In addition, the WHO warned against the threat of another “emerging variant of covid-19”, that would cause “new waves of disease and death.” “The pandemic has thrown us off course, but it has shown us why the Sustainable Development Goals they must continue to be our lodestar and why we must pursue them with the same urgency and determination with which we counter the pandemic,” he stressed.

Another of the issues that he emphasized was mental health, noting that the pandemic “has had a high cost for mental health.” “Many of our own employees, like many healthcare workers around the world, have experienced severe stress and burnout,” as “the pandemic has presented us with unprecedented challenges,” added Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

tuberculosis and polio

The spokesman stressed that the tuberculosis and polio that continue to be priorities of the WHO and stressed the importance of the effective vaccines to eradicate both diseases. Earlier this year we also established a TB Vaccine Acceleration Council to bring new vaccines to market as soon as possible,” said the WHO director-general, who said this “was done for covid-19 and was can do for tuberculosis”. Regarding poliomyelitis, which continues to be a global health emergency, it has not yet been possible to announce its eradication. “After a record low of five cases of wild poliovirus in 2021, we saw an increase last year, with 20 cases in Pakistan, two in Afghanistan and eight in Mozambique,” according to the director general and so far this year, have reported three cases of wild poliovirus to the Organization: one in Pakistan and two from Afghanistan last week.