Is the world ready for another pandemic?

While much of the world has moved on from Covid-19, a new Ebola outbreak in Central Africa is exposing just how little has changed in the global approach to pandemic preparedness. This emergent crisis proves that the threat of another major infectious disease outbreak is neither distant nor hypothetical. It is already unfolding.

The World Health Organization recently declared the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda a public health emergency of international concern after infections crossed borders and spread into urban areas. Officials have also warned that the true scale of the outbreak may be considerably larger than current figures suggest, particularly in conflict affected regions where access to healthcare services remains limited.

This new Ebola outbreak is especially concerning because the Bundibugyo strain currently circulating has no approved vaccine. International agencies are now struggling to put froth experimental vaccines and treatments and to mobilise emergency supplies and personnel. Once again, the global response is focused on managing a crisis after it has already emerged rather than preventing it from escalating in the first place, which is precisely the lesson that the world was supposed to learn from Covid-19.

The current Ebola outbreak is unfolding at a particularly difficult moment. Reductions in foreign assistance from the United States and other traditional donors have eroded already fragile public health systems across much of the developing world. Simultaneously, multilateral institutions, including the United Nations system, are confronting mounting financial pressures that constrain their capacity to compensate for these shortfalls.

The consequences extend far beyond any single outbreak. Researchers have long warned that weak surveillance systems, limited testing capacity and fragmented funding can delay detection and response, allowing outbreaks to spread unchecked. Infectious diseases thrive on precisely these vulnerabilities.

Global pandemic preparedness also remains highly unequal. During Covid-19, wealthier countries secured vaccines and medical supplies while many poorer nations were forced to wait. Although international partnerships helped expand access over time, the pandemic exposed the extent to which manufacturing capacity, research infrastructure and pharmaceutical production remain concentrated in a small number of countries.

Many lower- and even middle-income states remain dependent on external suppliers for critical medical products. Pakistan also continues to rely heavily on international partnerships for responding to health crisis such as a pandemic.

During Covid-19, Pakistan avoided some of the worst outcomes many observers initially feared. A relatively young population may have helped reduce mortality, while vaccines eventually became available through a combination of international cooperation, bilateral partnerships and domestic procurement. Yet, the pandemic also exposed significant weaknesses. Disease surveillance remains uneven, laboratory capacity requires further strengthening and the entire healthcare system continues to face serious resource constraints.

There is no guarantee that the next pandemic will resemble the last one. A future pathogen could spread more rapidly, prove more lethal, or be far more difficult to contain and vaccinate against, with potentially devastating consequences.

The risk of zoonotic disease spillovers continues to grow, driven by climate change, environmental degradation and increasing human encroachment into wildlife habitats. Many emerging pathogens may have no existing vaccines or effective treatments, making robust surveillance, scientific research and rapid response capabilities the first and most important line of defence.

For countries like Pakistan, preparedness should be viewed not simply as a public health issue but as a matter of national resilience and strategic autonomy.