September 23, 2024- Abbott announced the findings of a new survey among leading infectious disease experts around the world on the state of pandemic preparedness and found that while most agree that preparation has improved since the COVID-19 pandemic, respondents say significant gaps remain in building surveillance programs to identify emerging pathogens, public health funding and having adequate testing infrastructure capabilities.
The survey, commissioned by the Abbott Pandemic Defense Coalition, asked more than 100 experts in virology, epidemiology and infectious diseases around the world about their priorities for addressing the gaps in readiness for disease outbreaks, their views on how the changing environment is impacting infectious diseases, and their suggestions for building a resilient healthcare system capable of identifying and responding to emerging disease outbreaks around the world. Respondents were evenly split on whether a new pathogen (50%) or changes in a known disease (50%) were a bigger threat for large-scale outbreaks, and nearly all (94%) believe viral pathogens are most likely to lead to widespread outbreaks, followed by bacteria, fungal and parasitic infections.