How collaboration is strengthening global efforts to detect and prevent disease

Effective national disease surveillance is the cornerstone of global public health security. All efforts to prevent and mitigate the impact of epidemics, pandemics and other emergencies depend on robust disease surveillance capabilities.

The widespread socio-economic disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic emphasized the need to revamp disease monitoring and build more interconnected solutions. It was part of a pattern of increasing infectious disease outbreaks driven by more trade and travel, climate change, biodiversity loss, pathogen transmission from animals to humans, urbanization, humanitarian crises and potential bioweapon use. The probability of another novel outbreak remains high – the stark reality is that such a pathogen could spread worldwide in less than 36 hours.

During 2024 alone, the world witnessed multiple disease outbreaks. There was a continued worldwide upsurge of cholera, multiple mpox outbreaks and a Marburg outbreak, as well as the resurgence of mosquitoes carrying diseases such as malaria, dengue, West Nile virus, and Eastern equine encephalitis, across high and low income countries. The Oropouche virus appeared in new geographies last year, there was also an H5N1 pandemic, as well as polio outbreaks in conflict zones where it was previously eliminated.

As French microbiologist Louis Pasteur said: “chance favours the prepared mind”. Indeed, countries can effectively prepare for and counter this kind of risk. In 2024, for example, Rwanda successfully contained an outbreak of one of the world’s most devastating high-consequence pathogens, the Marburg virus.

Rwanda’s leadership and investment over the years to strengthen in-country capacity to identify and respond to biothreats enabled a rapid response. This included delivery of a new vaccine with clinical trials initiated nine days after outbreak detection. It had support from a series of public-private partnerships, including the 100-Days Mission, to quickly develop a vaccine for novel pathogens.

How can we build on such successes to save even more lives? What needs to be in place to ensure all societies are protected by comprehensive biosecurity infrastructure?

The only way to be truly prepared is to “buy time” by identifying disease risk and outbreaks as quickly as possible. In this sense, the success of Rwanda's Marburg virus containment underscores a critical insight: effective pandemic preparedness is not just about individual capabilities, but about creating interconnected, adaptive systems that can rapidly respond to emerging threats.

While targeted public-private partnerships and national investments are essential, they represent only part of a complex global health ecosystem. The real challenge and opportunity lies in transforming isolated efforts into a cohesive, intelligence-driven network that can anticipate, detect and neutralize potential biological risks before they escalate into full-blown crises. This needs to happen in a sustainable way for both private and public sector partners.

There are significant challenges to setting up such a disease intelligence network. Public-private solutions must be comprehensive, for starters. COVID-19 showed that infectious disease can have catastrophic impact on all industries. Accurate intelligence on how disease affects business operations, customers and workforces is critical for ensuring safety and resilience.

Industry also has an important role in contributing to disease intelligence and mitigating the risk of pandemics. For example, diverse information collected by companies related to product sales, satellite imagery, operations, travel, wastewater and social media can help predict outbreaks when combined with public health data.

Technologies and capabilities that unlock and ensure build out of early warning and detection systems that feed into effective response systems also reside within the private sector. These include machine learning, artificial intelligence, telecoms and the development of vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics. At present, funding for disease intelligence systems is almost exclusively supported by the public sector, however, leaving them vulnerable to neglect between public health emergencies.

To address such challenges, the Biosecurity Readiness through Intelligence, Data and Global Engagement (BRIDGE) Alliance was launched in May 2024 by the World Economic Forum and the World Health Assembly. BRIDGE aims to mitigate the risk of pandemics by catalysing financially sustainable cross-sectoral, interoperable disease surveillance networks.

Such networks would link existing information systems and enable sharing in a safe and secure way that respects privacy and sovereignty. To do this, BRIDGE is working with technology partners and across industries to develop a “blueprint for action” that identifies potential tools, technologies and processes.

And to address financial sustainability specifically, BRIDGE will also explore how such early warning and disease surveillance systems can generate value for broad partner sets during non-pandemic times through the development of use cases, business cases and incentives.

A group of organizations and companies dedicated to improved disease monitoring has joined BRIDGE to collaborate on identifying new solutions to mitigate pandemic risk. This includes Abbott, Anglo American, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Deloitte, Ginkgo Bioworks, The Global Fund, Henry Schein, IQVIA, Luma Group, Microsoft, The Pandemic Fund, Planet Labs, Siemens Healthineers, the US National Academy of Medicine and the World Health Organization. To anchor these efforts, BRIDGE will work with two to four “Lead Countries” to support and accelerate their national plans and priorities.

This will provide a unique starting point for concrete cross-sectoral actions that will help realize the convergence of public health, biosecurity and biodefense and enable action to build the next generation of preparedness.

Anne Strickland, Director, Commercial Operations & Strategy at Ginko Bioworks, and Gaurav Garg, Associate Director, Global Public Health at IQVIA AG, also contributed to this article.