A reference tool has been developed to highlight where scientific research can be targeted to boost UK preparedness against health threats.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has drawn up a watchlist of 24 pathogen families that could pose the greatest risk to public health, in a bid to focus and guide preparedness efforts against these threats.
It is the first specifically designed to consider both global public health threats as well as those most relevant to the UK population.
It provides information on pathogen families where UKHSA believes further research would be most beneficial to boost preparedness against future biosecurity risks, particularly around diagnostics, vaccines and therapeutics. Research and development across a range of other pathogen families not on this list also remains vital.
“This tool is a vital guide for industry and academia, highlighting where scientific research can be targeted to boost UK preparedness against health threats,” said Isabel Oliver, chief scientific officer for UKHSA.
Priorities and risks will change
For each viral family included in the tool, an indicative rating of high, moderate, or low pandemic and epidemic potential is suggested. These ratings are the opinions of scientific experts within UKHSA, who have considered routes of transmission and severity of disease arising from pathogens in each family to inform the ratings.
The UKHSA emphasises that this rating does not indicate which pathogen it considers most likely to cause the next pandemic, but rather those pathogens requiring increased scientific investment and study. It also includes those pathogens where increased vaccine or diagnostics development is needed or those which may be exacerbated by a changing climate or antimicrobial resistance.
Among the pathogen families where UKHSA is keen to see greater scientific strides made are the coronaviridae family, which includes Covid-19; the paramyxoviridae family which includes Nipah virus; and the orthomyxoviridae family which includes avian influenza.
But, the agency is keen to underline, priorities and risks will change with updates in epidemiology and progress will be made with the development of diagnostics and countermeasures. Therefore, the tool, which is intended to be updated annually, must be used with other information as appropriate and represents a snapshot at one point in time.
“We are using the tool as part of our conversations with the scientific community, to help ensure that investment is focused to where it can have the biggest impact,” says Oliver.
