Enhancing preparedness for tackling new epidemic threats

New and re-emerging infectious diseases cause much human suffering worldwide. Many of these diseases are zoonoses with epidemic potential. All sub-Saharan African regions are highly biodiverse with large rural populations that are highly dependent on livestock agriculture. Movement of pathogens between animals and people increases as the domestic populations expand, creating novel ecotones and ecosystemic perturbation. With increasing food security demands, intensification of livestock and agriculture is required and further evolution and spill over of novel zoonoses to humans is inevitable. The emergence this century of previously unknown zoonotic respiratory tract infectious diseases with epidemic potential, such as Avian influenza, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), highlights an urgent need to change the current global status quo. The 2015 west African Ebola virus epidemic illustrated that once an infectious diseas