Coronavirus: World will face serious infectious disease in future unless… – Scientists

The world will continue to face serious infectious disease threats in the future if concerted efforts are not made to address the critical connections between environmental degradation and disease vectors, the G-Academies of Science and Medicine has said.

The G-Academies of Science and Medicine is a global association of certified experts in science and medicine across the world.

The group, in a statement made available on its behalf by the Nigerian Academy of Science, a member of the group, on Wednesday, said in order to prevent future outbreaks of novel pathogens, policy makers must work with scientists and medical experts to address once and for all the connections between environmental degradation and disease vectors.

It said the current tragedy of the coronavirus should galvanize the world to dramatically strengthen efforts to prevent and control infectious diseases, so that human societies have improved states of readiness and increased resilience to infectious disease calamities.

“Looming uncertainties remain and much needs to be done”, the experts said.

They added: “Humanity has been repeatedly endangered by infectious diseases and, each time, has overcome the crisis. We will continue to face serious infectious disease threats in the future, from pandemic influenza to drug-resistant infections.

“Concerted efforts are needed to address the critical connections between environmental degradation and disease vectors in order to prevent future outbreaks of novel pathogens”.

The academies who are also members of the InterAcademy Partnership of academies of sciences and of medicine (IAP), with participants from over 100 countries around the world, including countries in the most difficult circumstances, play important roles in their own countries and through international and regional cooperation, working in close collaboration with government, academia and the private sector, in order to overcome the current COVID-19 pandemic.

Some of the Academies are:

Academia Brasileira de Ciências, Brazil;

Royal Society of Canada, Canada;

Académie des Sciences, France;

Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher ‘Leopoldina’, Germany;

Global Young Academy

Indian National Science Academy, India;

Indonesian Academy of Sciences, Indonesia;

Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Italy;

Science Council of Japan;

Nigerian Academy of Science, Nigeria;

Korean Academy of Science and Technology, Republic of Korea;

Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia;

Royal Society, United Kingdom;

National Academy of Sciences, United States of America; and

National Academy of Medicine, United States of America.