What would happen if the viruses from the exploded Russian laboratory spread across the globe? According to a report by the Epidemic Monitoring Board, led by former WHO chief Gro Harlem Brundtland, it only takes 36 hours for a virus to spread around the world, killing an estimated 80 million people
“A World at Risk,” as the document is called, comes before the explosion at the Russian lab and aims to get world leaders to take action. They recall that a century ago, the Spanish flu sickened a third of the world's population and killed nearly 50 million.
If it were to return nowadays, thanks to the greater mobility of people, its consequences would be even more catastrophic.
“The threat of starting a pandemic is real, the experts wrote in their report. "A fast-moving pathogen could kill tens of millions of people, disrupt the economy and destabilize national security."
According to the group of experts, the measures currently being taken to deal with viruses such as Ebola are "grossly inadequate".
The head of the experts is Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland. She is a former Prime Minister of Norway and Director General of the World He alth Organization. According to her, many of the recommendations in the report are poorly implemented or not implemented at all by the countries.
“For too long we have allowed ourselves to spin in a cycle of panic and neglect when it comes to pandemics. We increase our efforts when there is a serious threat, then quickly forget about it when it subsides. The time for action has long passed, the Monitoring Board wrote.
The report is accompanied by a map showing where major outbreaks may occur. They are divided into "new" and "returning".
These include Ebola, Zika, Nipah virus and five different types of flu. Also included in the warning are West Nile fever, antibiotic resistance, smallpox, yellow fever, dengue virus, plague and others.
It will take even less than 36 hours for the virus to spread as people travel en masse around the world by airplanes.
“A pandemic this large would be catastrophic. The world is not prepared, the experts say categorically. According to them, in the event of an infection, many he alth systems, especially in poor countries, will collapse.
The worst the world has seen so far is the Spanish virus.
He moved faster than everyone else. In just months, it killed 50 million people, three times as many as died in the First World War. In most cases, viruses kill young children, the elderly, or those whose immune systems are already weakened by another disease. However, the Spanish flu mostly affects he althy young people.
The media has been censoring the number of infected and victims in Great Britain, Germany, France and the USA for a long time. However, there are no restrictions on newspapers in Spain. This creates the impression that only she is seriously affected, which led to the name of the virus - Spanish Flu.
Whether the dead were 50 or 100 million is not clear. But according to the data, between 10 and 20% of those infected died.
