Pandemic preparedness

Most of the latest pandemics have been caused by viruses, and most of these have been variants of the influenza virus, which, like EV and RSV, is an RNA virus. Other recent examples of pandemic RNA viruses are COVID-19 (a coronavirus) and Zika virus (a flavivirus).

RNA viruses have also been identified as the class of pathogens that is most likely to cause a global catastrophic biological event: a situation that has the capacity to cause such significant damage to human civilization that it undermines the long-term potential of our species.

“RNA viruses have also been identified as the class of pathogens that is most likely to cause a global catastrophic biological event”

EV is known to have pandemic potential, based both on its viral features as well as the history of the poliovirus. In the 1940s and 50s, poliovirus caused serious epidemics with about 500,000 cases of paralysis or death per year before the polio vaccine became available. Some EV strains, sometimes referred to as “polio-like”, more frequently cause neurological complications and death. Incidences of these strains, such as EV-A71 and EV-D68, which were first reported in the 1960s and 1970s, have increased lately. Availability of a broad-spectrum EV antiviral such as CUR-N399 would be invaluable in a serious EV outbreak.