Issue Persistent threat of infectious disease

Summary

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, new, variant and zoonotic infectious diseases have been emerging at shorter intervals. Climate change, urbanisation and growing international mobility are expanding the speed and range of transmission. The survey treats this as a standing threat that goes beyond health care and demands resilience and response systems across the economy and society. The pandemic highlighted the One Health approach linking human, animal and environmental health, and discussions such as a WHO pandemic agreement signal the need to reorganise international cooperation. Despite advances such as mRNA vaccines and AI-based disease control, infections linked to climate change and ecosystem destruction are spreading, so infectious-disease response is evolving from a public-health task into a national security issue.