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WHO warns of global epidemic risk BBC Infectious diseases are spreading faster than ever before, the World Health Organization annual report says. With about 2.1 billion airline passengers flying each year, there is a high risk of another major epidemic such as Aids, Sars or Ebola fever. The WHO urges increased efforts to combat disease outbreaks, and sharing of virus data to help develop vaccines. Without this, it says, there could be devastating impacts on the global economy and international security. In the report, A Safer Future, the WHO says new diseases are emerging at the "historically unprecedented" rate of one per year.
"It would be extremely naive and complacent to assume that there will not be another disease like Aids, another Ebola, or another Sars, sooner or later," the report says. See map showing recent emergence of infectious diseases Openness needed The WHO is embroiled in a dispute with Indonesia over its H5N1 bird flu
virus samples. China only started sharing its H5N1 samples in June. The WHO report also urges governments to be open about disease outbreaks, saying nearly half of all outbreak alerts it receives come from the media. Drug resistance also poses a threat to disease control, the WHO says, blaming misuse of antibiotics and poor medical treatment, particularly in the case of tuberculosis. In an introduction to the report, WHO Director-General Margaret Chan says co-operation is crucial to combat outbreaks. "Given today's universal vulnerability to these threats, better security calls for global solidarity," Dr Chan says. "International public health security is both a collective aspiration and a mutual responsibility."
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