90-Second Read: Covid, Hantavirus, ebola… post-outbreak rush can’t protect people: Virologist on pandemic scare

As health authorities scramble to track and treat suspected cases, virologist Emma Thomson has said that the surging Hantavirus and ebola outbreaks have exposed weaknesses in the global public health response. As health authorities race against time to track and treat suspected patients, virologist Emma Thomson has said spiralling Hantavirus and ebola virus outbreaks have laid bare flaws in the global approach to public health. ALSO READ: Hantavirus not a pandemic risk, but 'Disease X' could catch world unprepared In the DRC, ebola circulated undetected for weeks as health authorities did not test for strains other than the dominant Zaire.

She warned that rushing to arrange for laboratories, diagnostics, and therapeutics once an outbreak is already underway is not effective as these preparations need to be done beforehand. At least 575 suspected cases, 51 confirmed cases, and 148 suspected deaths have been reported in the DRC and Uganda, according to the latest information. An analysis by the MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis at Imperial College London found that at least 800-1,000 people could have been infected by the time the two countries declared an outbreak.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the ebola outbreak a public health emergency but stressed that it does not have the potential to cause a pandemic. For one, ebola is not airborne like Sars‑CoV‑2, the virus that causes Covid‑19, and spreads through close physical contact with bodily fluids such as blood, sweat, saliva, vomit, and faeces of an infected person or animal. We tend to build tools around the best-known outbreak pathogens, but rarer viruses such as Bundibugyo virus can still cause severe disease and international spread.