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The Coming Pandemic

Are we ready for a global epidemic of infectious disease?

Ebola is back. In 2014, it killed over 11,000 people in West Africa. Now the disease has struck once again in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This time doctors are better equipped, with a vaccine and immunisation campaign but the outbreak highlights the ever-present dangers posed by infectious diseases. One hundred years ago the Spanish flu killed over 50 million people in just one year. And doctors now say the next pandemic will be upon us in a matter of decades. We don't know where it will start but in a hyper-connected world we know it will spread easily. Ritula Shah asks a panel of expert guests about the scenarios that keep them up at night and whether global health infrastructure is ready for the coming pandemic.

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50 minutes

Last on

Sat 26 May 2018 11:06GMT
Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service except Americas and the Caribbean, East and Southern Africa, News Internet & West and Central Africa

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Contributors

Laura Spinney - Author of Pale Rider, a history of the 1918 Spanish flu

Arlene King - Adjunct professor Dalla Lana school of public health at the University of Toronto

Dr Jonathan Quick - Harvard Medical School, Chair of the Global Health Council, and author of The End of Epidemics

David Heymann - Professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Richard Hatchett - Chief Executive, Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations

Photo

A health worker in Liberia. Credit: Dominique Faget/AFP/Getty Images

Broadcasts

  • Fri 25 May 2018 08:06GMT
    Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service except News Internet
  • Fri 25 May 2018 17:06GMT
    Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service Australasia
  • Fri 25 May 2018 23:06GMT
    Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service except News Internet
  • Sat 26 May 2018 03:06GMT
    Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service except Australasia & News Internet
  • Sat 26 May 2018 11:06GMT
    Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service except Americas and the Caribbean, East and Southern Africa, News Internet & West and Central Africa

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