Mitigating Future Respiratory Virus Pandemics: New Threats and Approaches to Consider
1
Division of Infectious Diseases, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC 27710, USA
2
Duke Global Health Institute, Duke University, Durham, NC 27710, USA
3
Emerging Infectious Disease Program, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore 169856, Singapore
4
Global Health Center, Duke Kunshan University, Kunshan 215316, China
5
Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editors: Mariano Agustin Garcia-Blanco, October Sessions and Eng Ooi
Viruses 2021, 13(4), 637; https://doi.org/10.3390/v13040637
Received: 16 March 2021
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Revised: 1 April 2021
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Accepted: 6 April 2021
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Published: 8 April 2021
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emerging RNA Viruses)
Despite many recent efforts to predict and control emerging infectious disease threats to humans, we failed to anticipate the zoonotic viruses which led to pandemics in 2009 and 2020. The morbidity, mortality, and economic costs of these pandemics have been staggering. We desperately need a more targeted, cost-efficient, and sustainable strategy to detect and mitigate future zoonotic respiratory virus threats. Evidence suggests that the transition from an animal virus to a human pathogen is incremental and requires a considerable number of spillover events and considerable time before a pandemic variant emerges. This evolutionary view argues for the refocusing of public health resources on novel respiratory virus surveillance at human–animal interfaces in geographical hotspots for emerging infectious diseases. Where human–animal interface surveillance is not possible, a secondary high-yield, cost-efficient strategy is to conduct novel respiratory virus surveillance among pneumonia patients in these same hotspots. When novel pathogens are discovered, they must be quickly assessed for their human risk and, if indicated, mitigation strategies initiated. In this review, we discuss the most common respiratory virus threats, current efforts at early emerging pathogen detection, and propose and defend new molecular pathogen discovery strategies with the goal of preempting future pandemics.
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MDPI and ACS Style
Gray, G.C.; Robie, E.R.; Studstill, C.J.; Nunn, C.L. Mitigating Future Respiratory Virus Pandemics: New Threats and Approaches to Consider. Viruses 2021, 13, 637. https://doi.org/10.3390/v13040637
AMA Style
Gray GC, Robie ER, Studstill CJ, Nunn CL. Mitigating Future Respiratory Virus Pandemics: New Threats and Approaches to Consider. Viruses. 2021; 13(4):637. https://doi.org/10.3390/v13040637
Chicago/Turabian StyleGray, Gregory C., Emily R. Robie, Caleb J. Studstill, and Charles L. Nunn. 2021. "Mitigating Future Respiratory Virus Pandemics: New Threats and Approaches to Consider" Viruses 13, no. 4: 637. https://doi.org/10.3390/v13040637
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