Global health experts warn the world is increasingly vulnerable to infectious disease outbreaks as authorities race to contain simultaneous crises, including an Ebola flare-up in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda and a hantavirus incident linked to a cruise ship. A new report from the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB) says outbreaks are becoming both more frequent and more damaging, while investments and collective action have failed to keep pace.
The GPMB, created in 2018 by the World Bank and the World Health Organization after the large west African Ebola epidemic and shortly before Covid-19, reports that pandemic risk is rising because of factors such as the climate emergency and armed conflict. It also highlights how geopolitical divisions and commercial self-interest are undermining the cooperation needed to prevent and respond to outbreaks.
The warnings come as health agencies respond to multiple emergencies. The WHO and partners have deployed teams to the DRC after at least 87 deaths linked to Ebola, and the agency has mounted urgent efforts to replenish protective equipment, including plans to airlift supplies from regional stockpiles. The WHO is convening a rapid scientific consultation to assemble current knowledge about the virus and to guide research priorities for vaccines, diagnostics and treatments.
Experts say weakened surveillance and cuts to global health assistance have made the world slower to detect and respond to novel threats. Georgetown’s Prof Matthew Kavanagh pointed out that early Ebola tests targeted the wrong strain, producing false negatives and costing critical response time while the virus spread along travel routes. He argued that reductions in WHO funding and the scaling back of frontline programmes have eroded the early-warning systems meant to catch outbreaks when they are still containable.
The GPMB acknowledges major advances in biomedical tools — for example, the rapid development of mRNA vaccine platforms — and substantial financial commitments for pandemic preparedness and response. But it warns that progress on equitable access to medical countermeasures has regressed. Vaccines and tests have reached low-income countries far too slowly: during recent mpox outbreaks, it took nearly two years for vaccines to arrive in affected African nations, a distribution pace even slower than the one seen for Covid-19 vaccines.
The report also describes a broader erosion of trust. Politicised responses, attacks on public health institutions and restrictions on civil liberties during outbreaks have damaged public confidence and democratic norms. That loss of trust, the GPMB says, leaves societies less resilient to future emergencies because people and governments are less willing or able to cooperate quickly and fairly.
GPMB co-chair Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović said solutions exist but will fail unless they are delivered equitably and with public trust. Co-chair Joy Phumaphi warned that fractured cooperation will expose every country more when the next pandemic arrives.
To address these gaps, the GPMB calls on political leaders to: establish a permanent, independent mechanism to monitor pandemic risk; finalise a pandemic agreement that guarantees fair access to vaccines, diagnostics and treatments in exchange for pathogen-sharing; and secure predictable financing for preparedness and rapid responses. The board urges governments, industry and civil society to turn commitments into measurable progress before the next global health emergency strikes.
