Global Coalition Aims To Outpace Epidemics With New Vaccines

A global coalition of governments, health specialists and philanthropists will launch a new plan on Thursday to “outsmart” future disease epidemics with a fund to prepare and create new vaccines. Stung by the devastation of West Africa’s 2014-2015 Ebola outbreak, which killed more than 11,300 people before an effective vaccine was developed, the coalition is aiming to ensure such deadly outbreaks can’t happen again. John-Arne Rottingen, interim chief executive officer of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), said it is designed as “a global insurance policy against epidemic and pandemic threats.” CEPI’s founders used the World Economic Forum in Davos to announce its launch, with initial funding of $460 million from the governments of Germany, Japan and Norway, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Wellcome Trust global health charity. Bill Gates, co-chair of the Gates Foundation and a leading global health philanthropist, said recent major viral disease epidemics - Ebola and Zika - showed how the world “is tragically unprepared to detect local outbreaks and respond quickly enough to prevent them from becoming global pandemics”. “Without investments in research and development, we will remain unequipped when we face the next threat,” he said. “The ability to rapidly develop and deliver vaccines when new unknown diseases emerge offers our best hope to outpace outbreaks, save ...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news