“We must prepare for another pandemic, including impossible scenarios”

The p^r Yazdan Yazdanpanah, head of department at Bichat Claude-Bernard hospital, heads the ANRS – Emerging Infectious Diseases, a national agency born during the Covid epidemic to coordinate and finance research on numerous pathologies. The infectious disease specialist, member of the Scientific Council during the epidemic, looks back on the lessons learned from this crisis.

LE FIGARO. – Is a new pandemic inevitable? ?

PR. YAZDAN YAZDANPANAH. – We know there will be another pandemic, although it is impossible to predict its nature, origin and scale. The risk exists, and we must do everything to prepare for it, including considering impossible scenarios.

What are the current alerts ?

In Central Africa, mpox is not under control, notably due to a lack of vaccines in the affected countries. There are imported cases in Europe, such as recently in Brittany. We are also closely monitoring the H5N1 virus which is spreading in 900 cow herds in the United States. Since March 2024, the country has recorded 66 human cases, contaminated by poultry or cattle. Fortunately, there is no human-to-human transmission and symptoms are generally mild, although in recent days there has been a first death in a person over 65 years old.