States at WHO meet seek better guard for next pandemic

GENEVA: Countries meeting at the World Health Organisation this week are thrashing out how to prepare for future pandemics -- amid warnings that the planet is wide open to the next crisis.

WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan said on Wednesday that infectious diseases were being amplified by weak public health services and poorly-managed urban settings. Citing the monkeypox outbreaks in non-endemic locations, he told countries that the spread of the virus was "directly related to our inability, or unwillingness, to manage those risks earlier in their cycle of epidemic generation".