OREANDA-NEWS. As the head of the Department of Epidemiology and Evidence-Based Medicine at Sechenov University, chief freelance epidemiologist of the Ministry of Health Nikolai Briko said in an interview with TASS, the next pandemic could be more destructive than the current coronavirus.

According to him, there will certainly be other global epidemics in the future. The scientist is confident that if people do not learn from the coronavirus pandemic, do not make decisions supported by certain resources, then the next pandemic will be even more destructive.

He noted that serious consequences can be avoided by creating systems for global monitoring of infections, strengthening the health infrastructure, and increasing the availability of medicine.

Earlier, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that the Nipah or NiV virus detected in Malaysia in 1999 could cause a new global pandemic. The infection is transmitted to humans from infected pigs and through contaminated fruits. Carriers of this virus in the wild are fruit-eating flying foxes from the order of fruit bats, which are widespread in southern China, Southeast Asia, New Guinea and Australia. In addition, the virus was detected in flying foxes in Africa. It is noteworthy that the animals themselves do not get sick with it. The mortality rate from the virus is 40-75 percent. The disease can be asymptomatic or cause fatal encephalitis. There is no cure for this virus yet.