Millions May Die If Flu-like Illness Travels, Warn Experts

A flu-like illness could travel around the world in 36 hours and kill 80 million people, experts have warned. A century ago the Spanish flu pandemic infected a third of the world’s population and killed 50 million people.

If a similar outbreak were to happen with today’s constantly-travelling population, the effects could be even worse, a report has suggested.

The Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB), a team of health experts led by a former chief of the World Health Organization, has produced the report to try and spur world leaders into action.

“The threat of a pandemic spreading around the globe is a real one,” the group said in a report released on Wednesday.

“A quick-moving pathogen has the potential to kill tens of millions of people, disrupt economies and destabilise national security.”

The report, named A World At Risk, said current efforts to prepare for outbreaks in the wake of crises such as Ebola are ‘grossly insufficient’.

A flu-like illness could travel around the world in 36 hours and kill over 80 million.

The GPMB is headed by Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, the former Norwegian prime minister and director-general of the WHO, and Mr Alhadj As Sy, the secretary-general of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

It said in its report that recommendations it made in an earlier report have been largely ignored by world leaders.

Report says current efforts are insufficient