review · Infezioni in Medicina
Pandemics cause severe global mortality alongside profound social, economic, and political disruption. In response to emerging threats following COVID-19, the World Health Organization released an updated list of priority pathogens in July 2024 to strengthen global pandemic preparedness. This revised strategy marks a transition from targeting isolated pathogens to adopting a broader, family-focused approach, incorporating concepts such as Prototype Pathogens and Pathogen X. The objective is to guide research and development towards neutralising pathogen virulence before outbreaks escalate. With recent outbreaks of cholera, mpox, and dengue in Africa, alongside threats in the Americas and Asia, there is an urgent need to intensify regional disease surveillance. Research organisations and institutions are urged to integrate these frameworks into collective initiatives like the Preparedness and Resilience for Emerging Threats programme.
Pandemics threaten lives, economies, and social stability worldwide. Adopting a proactive, family-based approach to pathogen surveillance and research helps the global community anticipate unfamiliar biological risks rather than merely reacting to existing diseases, ultimately safeguarding public health and mitigating the severe economic and social damage of future outbreaks.
The updated framework serves as a strategic guide for research organisations, biopharmaceutical developers, and public health institutions directing research and development towards neutralising pathogen virulence. While the guidance itself is a policy and planning tool rather than a commercial product, it guides early-stage research into vaccines, diagnostics, and therapeutics by outlining priority pathogen families and unknown disease threats.
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Historically, pandemics constitute a major nuisance to public health. They have a debilitating impact on global health with previous occurrences causing major mortalities worldwide. The adverse outcomes are not limited to health outcomes but ravage the social, economic, and political landscapes. The World Health Organization (WHO) stands at the front of the pandemic response, strategizing to contain and mitigate the impacts on humans and the environment. It also intervenes in regional disease outbreaks that pose a threat to global health through strategic technical guidance, resource allocations, and expert support. With emerging pathogens, and in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, discussions are currently underway on global preparedness for a potential future pandemic. The effects of previous pandemics underscore the need to improve global health preparedness for upcoming pandemics. The WHO's July 2024 updated list of emerging pathogens serves as a potential tool to foster global health readiness for a future pandemic. It represents a change in the world's approach to emerging and re-emerging pathogens, shifting focus from specific pathogens to adopting a broader family-focused approach. This new list recognizes the shortcomings of previous lists and adopts a more forward-thinking, proactive, and flexible approach to dealing with familiar and unfamiliar pandemic risks, now incorporating 'Prototype Pathogens' and 'Pathogen X' into its risk classification. The WHO has set the pace, developing tools and guidelines for practice. This updated list of high-priority pathogens seeks to gear research and development toward combating and neutralizing the virulence of these pathogens. Recent outbreaks of Cholera, Mpox, and Dengue fever in Africa, Avian influenza (H5N2) in Mexico, Nipah virus disease in Bangladesh, and Oropouche virus in the Americas necessitate intensifying regional disease surveillance Research organizations and institutions must prioritize incorporating these tools and approaches for shared learning and collective action established during the COVID-19 pandemic and other recent public health emergencies in the Preparedness and Resilience for Emerging Threats (PRET) Initiative as outlined by WHO.
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DOI: 10.53854/liim-3204-5
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