Rather than wait for viruses like Ebola, SARS and Zika to become outbreaks that force the world to react, a new global initiative seeks to proactively identify, prepare for and stop viral threats before they become pandemics.
The Global Virome Project, described in an article of the same name to be published Feb. 23 in the journal Science, is an international partnership to identify and halt the spread of the majority of the planet’s unknown viruses. Such an approach could mark the end of the “Pandemic Era,” the authors say.