A global network of doctors and laboratories is working to pinpoint emerging viral threats, including many driven by climate change, in a bid to head off the world's next pandemic. The coalition of self-described "virus hunters" has uncovered everything from an unusual tick-borne disease in Thailand to a surprise outbreak in Colombia of an infection spread by midges. "The roster of things that we have to worry about, as we saw with COVID-19, is not static," said Gavin Cloherty, an infectious disease expert who heads the Abbott Pandemic Defense Coalition.
"We have to be very vigilant about how the bad guys that we know about are changing...
But also if there's new kids on the block," he told AFP. The coalition brings together doctors and scientists at universities and health institutions across the world, with funding from health care and medical devices giant Abbott. By uncovering new threats, the coalition gives Abbott a potential headstart in designing the kinds of testing kits that were central to the COVID-19 response.
And its involvement gives the coalition deep pockets and the ability to detect and sequence but also respond to new viruses. "When we find something, we're able to very quickly make diagnostic tests at industry level," Cloherty said. "The idea is to ringfence an outbreak, so that we would be able to hopefully prevent a pandemic.
" The coalition has sequenced approximately 13,000 samples since it began operating in 2021. In Colombia, it found an outbreak of O.