key: cord-0865879-lm105z6n
authors: Imperiale, Michael J.
title: Recurring Themes
date: 2020-07-08
journal: mSphere
DOI: 10.1128/msphere.00633-20
sha: 8b2767f3ee6b18b469d53a554be1427dec3005f2
doc_id: 865879
cord_uid: lm105z6n

nan

to ask whether mSphere would be interested in publishing a summary of a conference being held at that time in Singapore to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the first Nipah virus outbreak. Having attended a similar conference on Ebola and other emerging infectious diseases a couple of years earlier, I knew that the topics of discussion and the information presented at such a meeting are of interest and importance to the microbial sciences community. I therefore told Benhur that we were absolutely interested: the report from the Nipah@20 conference is published with this editorial (1).

Little did he or I know in early December that another outbreak was simmering at that exact time. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was beginning its journey from Wuhan, China to the rest of the world, and as of the time I am writing this, well over 10 million cases and half a million deaths have been reported. As the authors of the Nipah@20 conference summary note, the similarities in terms of what the world needs to respond to such emerging diseases are many. What is distressing is that the stories are all too familiar: lack of commitment and resources to fund research, surveillance, and development of therapeutics and vaccines.

We have heard these appeals in the context of viral diseases over and over and over again. HIV/AIDS. Ebola. Nipah. Avian influenza. SARS. COVID-19. When is the world going to realize that we must be better prepared for events that are occurring all too regularly? I strongly encourage you, the scientific community, to advocate vigorously for increased attention to, and funding for, these constantly emerging threats.

Nipah@20: lessons learned from another virus with pandemic potential