OCTOBER 24, 2022. The World Bank is today releasing Putting Pandemics Behind Us: Investing in One Health to Reduce Risks of Emerging Infectious Diseases, a new report proposing actionable solutions to end the cycle of devastating pandemics.
Seventy-five percent of emerging infectious diseases and almost all known pandemics result from increased contact between animals and people, causing more than 1 billion human infections and 1 million deaths each year.
In the new report, policymakers, governments, and the international community are urged to invest in pandemic prevention and to move away from the business-as-usual approach based on containment and control after a disease has emerged. The report estimates that prevention costs guided by a One Health approach – which would sustainably balance and optimize the health of people, animals, and ecosystems – would range from $10.3 billion to $11.5 billion per year, compared to the cost of managing pandemics which, according to the recent estimate by the G20 Joint Finance and Health Taskforce, amounts to about $30.1 billion per year.