The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned governments around the world that covid 19 Be prepared for an even more deadly disease.
WHO WHO director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the annual health assembly in Geneva on Tuesday that it was time to move beyond talks to prevent the next pandemic.
He warned that nation-states could not afford to ignore it and that the next global pandemic was preparing to ‘knock’.
Dr Tedros said: ‘If we don’t make the changes that need to be made, who will? And if measures are not taken now, when will they be taken?’
He added: ‘There is a risk of another type of (pandemic) emerging that will cause new increases in disease and death, and there remains the risk of another disease-causing microbe emerging with even more lethal potential. .’
Addressing global health challenges, including future pandemics, is being considered at the 10-day annual World Health Assembly in Geneva to mark the world body’s 75th anniversary.
WHO’s 194 member countries are currently negotiating reforms to the rules that define their responsibilities in the event of an international health threat.
The assembly is also drafting a comprehensive pandemic agreement that will be submitted for ratification next year.
Dr Tedros said: ‘Persistence on the part of the current generation for this agreement is important because it is the generation that witnessed how terrifying a small virus can be.’
This warning has come out when a few weeks ago the World Health Organization said regarding Covid-19 that it is no longer a global emergency.
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The WHO said countries around the world must still manage the virus, which has killed nearly 6.9 million people.
At the beginning of this month, Dr. Tedros said that ‘I am announcing the end of Covid-19 as a global emergency with great hope.’
He added that the end of the emergency does not mean that Covid-19 has ended as a global health threat.
At its peak in January 2021, more than 100,000 people per week, according to WHO data Corona Due to this, the death rate due to covid reduced to 3500 by April 24, 2023.
This reflects widespread vaccination, the availability of better treatments and the immunity that people develop from pre-existing infections.
WHO emergency director Michael Ryan said: ‘The war is not over. We still have weaknesses and those weaknesses in our system will be exposed by this virus or any other virus and we need to fix that.’
The WHO announcement comes just four months after China lifted its long and strict Covid restrictions, which had seen a sharp rise in infections.