2023-08-10 01:46:00
UK scientists are working on a new top-secret super lab inside Porton Down with the aim of preparing for an eventual new pandemic. In this sense, they will be in charge of develop vaccine prototypes to address the so-called “disease X”which they believe could be the H5N1 bird flu.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), “disease X represents the knowledge that a serious international epidemic could be caused by a pathogen that is currently unknown that causes a human disease”.
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In this regard, for decades scientists have warned that bird flu is the most likely candidate to trigger the next pandemic. Along these lines, they highlighted the threat of recombination, since high levels of human flu increase the risk that a human will also be infected with avian flu.
The largest avian influenza outbreak in history is currently going through, which raises concerns about possible transmission to humans in the event of a possible mutation. While there is no evidence yet that bird flu is transmitted from human to human, experts fear that the virus, which has already been detected in mammals, can easily evolve to attack people.
That’s why leading scientists working at the site, which is the only one in the UK equipped to create a vaccine from start to finish, confirmed that are preparing the tools that would be needed if the “H5N1” bird flu strain were to spread to humans. Globally, fewer than 900 human cases of H5N1 have been reported, but it has a fatality rate of about 50%.
“We are preparing the tools that we would need if the virus is transmitted from person to person,” he told The Paragraph Dr Bassam Hallis, Deputy Director of Porton Down for the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA). “We are absolutely stepping up H5N1 preparedness efforts. We have stepped up our surveillance and are testing people who may have been exposed,” added Isabel Oliver, UKHSA’s chief scientific officer.
The work of the laboratory and the “mission of 100 days”
More than 200 scientists are working on more than 100 projects in the top-secret laboratory at Porton Down, run by the UK government. Among his tasks are surveillance and the potential development of vaccines for diseases such as tuberculosis and monkeypox. For example, the first clinical trials of what could be a world’s first vaccine against Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, a virus spread by tick bites, are being carried out at that center.
The new facility will join the global “100-day mission”, launched in 2021 under the UK G7 presidency. The idea is to do the scientific groundwork early, which should allow creating an effective vaccine within 100 days of a new outbreakwhatever the pathogen.
“What we’re trying to do here is make sure we prepare“So if we have a new ‘disease X’, a new pathogen, we’ve done most of that work as far in advance as possible,” said Professor Dame Jenny Harries, UKHSA Director.
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“For previous vaccines, it took five to ten years (to develop), for Covid it was less than 365 days, so 100 days really is an effort, but that is what the vaccine center is designed for,” Harries said. Likewise, he considered that the United Kingdom is “better prepared for another pandemic.”
“We had to build and strengthen our capacity in the midst of the pandemic. What we want to do now is maintain these capacities, skills and experience,” Oliver said. “But government resources are limited. We need to continue working with external and academic partners to maintain the level of capacity we need,” he added.
More than 200 scientists are working on more than 100 projects.
Thanks to the advancement of technology, the center can test 3,000 blood samples per week to monitor the spread of viruses, which according to Hallis, would have a great impact “to make decisions faster” if another pandemic were declared. Added to this, the researchers are optimistic about artificial intelligence (AI), as they believe it will help them “identify virus mutations and give us a much faster way to repurpose antivirals and therapies.”
On the other hand, the scientists affirmed that global migration is generating increasing threats as people and animals move closer together. Furthermore, global warming is also creating risks of vector-borne pathogens such as mosquitoes and ticks appearing in places never seen before, including the UK.
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In this regard, Oliver indicated: “We have seen a large number of new infectious diseases in recent decades. Nor there is doubt that there will be new pandemics in the not too distant future“We know that through scientific advancement, we could detect and control these threats before they have the impact that Covid-19 had on our lives,” he added.
For his part, the British Secretary of Health, Steve Barclay, considered that the center “consolidates the global position of the United Kingdom by leading the preparation for a pandemic, the development of vaccines and scientific discovery.” “Hundreds of the world’s leading scientists are already at the center working on vaccines…to save lives around the world”he concluded.
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