New experimental Ebola treatments are arriving in the Democratic Republic of Congo as scientists race to contain a deadly outbreak that has already infected nearly 1600 people and claimed more than 500 lives.
Doctors have begun enrolling patients into urgent clinical trials, with researchers testing several treatments to identify the most effective option.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Australia unprepared for next pandemic, expert warns
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One senior health official overseeing the response said the goal is to determine “which medicine, which molecule, will be the most effective.”
While the work is focused on saving lives in Central Africa, one of Australia’s leading pandemic experts says it should serve as a warning to the rest of the world.
Jane Halton, a highly respected health leader and chair of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), says outbreaks like Ebola highlight why governments must invest in vaccines and preparedness long before the next global emergency begins.
“Frontline defences are actually being ready before something like this happens,” Halton told 7NEWS.
“It’s about doing the work beforehand to have vaccines ready, to actually have manufacturing ready, and to be sure that our regulators can move really quickly so we don’t all wait while people go through bureaucratic hoops.”
CEPI was established after the West African Ebola epidemic in 2017, to accelerate vaccine development against emerging infectious diseases before they become global pandemics.
Halton said despite the lessons of COVID-19, the world remains vulnerable.
“No country can say confidently that we are prepared,” she said.
The United States has now committed another US$50 million to support CEPI’s vaccine development work, and Halton hopes Australia will again contribute after providing $100 million to the organisation’s previous funding round.
“Every time we respond to one of these situations we get faster,” she said.
“If there’s another pandemic, and we know it’s not a question sadly of if — it’s when — it actually means the response to that pandemic will be much faster than we had last time.
Jane Halton says the next pandemic is a matter of when, not if. Credit: 7NEWS
“We want to be ready. We want to be quick. We want to save lives and mostly we want our lives to continue as we want them, going to work, going to school, having time with family and friends.”
Halton believes the next major health emergency may not come from a naturally occurring virus alone.
She said influenza remains one of the most likely pandemic threats, but advances in artificial intelligence have created a new challenge for global health agencies.
“We have to be prepared that the next time one of these outbreaks occurs it might have been AI-designed, engineered and then of course made.”
“It’s an uncomfortable truth that people will use the science in that way but we have to be ready.”
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