Due to the emergence of new diseases whose pathology is not clearly known, scientists fast-track vaccines for these potentially harmful diseases to prevent the occurrence of deadly global outbreaks. A group of governments and charities have donated $460 million to speed up the development of vaccines for Mers, Lassa fever and Nipah virus. They are pleading financially-able personalities at the World Economic Forum Davos to fund the health project another $500 million.
The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (Cepi) hopes to achieve their goal of having two new experimental vaccines prepared for each disease within five years. The creation of new vaccines is costly, usually worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and typically takes about ten years to develop. That's why scientists fast-track vaccines to meet demands when another outbreak happens.
The undertaking of this project is significantly linked to the survival of the majority of the population as data on the effects and safety of vaccines have exposed. According to the BBC, The world has been shown how "tragically unprepared" we are when it comes to dealing and managing deadly viral exposure such as the Ebola outbreaks West Africa, and the Zika epidemic in Latin America. Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust, one of the pioneering members of Cepi have stressed the challenging issue of containing outbreaks due to travel and urbanization, the itv reports.
"21st Century epidemics could start in a big city and then take off the way Ebola did in West Africa," he says. Bill Gates have also weighed in on the urgency of the development of vaccines for the three diseases which have high probability of causing a global epidemic. "Without investments in research and development, we will remain unequipped when we face the next threat," he says. Scientists fast-track vaccines to contain the serious threat to global health and its economic repercussion, ensuring rapid development of the medicine and swift delivery to prevent outbreaks.
