The project hunts for 1.7 million unknown viruses

Scientists will begin to search for 1.7 million unknown viruses that can cause disease in animals and humans later this year.

An international team of scientists describes the Global Virome Project (GVP) expected to begin later this year in research letter published in Science magazine on February 23, according to Live Science. The goal of the project is to spend the next 10 years to identify, research and hope to prevent hundreds of thousands of unknown viruses originating from animals so that they will not cause the next global pandemic.

"The ability to limit the occurrence of epidemics is impaired by our ignorance of the diversity and ecological aspect of virus threats. The Global Virome project will help identify most of the term threatening the virus, while providing timely data for community health interventions to help combat future pandemics , " the researchers said.

Nearly 1.67 million unknown viruses are capable of causing illness.(Photo: Dreamstime).

From avian flu, human-to-animal-derived diseases have been responsible for many of the most dangerous outbreaks in history. In fact, these may be the main agents causing the next big pandemic. If we say these viruses are our enemies, we still don't know much about them.

According to the team, there are about 260 types of animal viruses that are known today that are capable of infecting humans. The amount of this virus is less than 0.01% of the total number of animal viruses that people can get. Data from past pandemics show that more than 1.67 million viruses are unknown, and about 631,000 - 827,000 of these viruses can be transmitted to humans.

GVP aims to narrow the knowledge gap, hoping to identify 99% of unknown pathogens in the next decade. It requires a global effort to develop new virus research projects with abundant funding. Currently, the number of countries participating in the GVP initiative has not been clearly defined, but representatives from Asia, Africa, the Americas and Europe have met to discuss this project since 2016, researchers Save writing in the article.

The cost of the project is estimated at 7 billion USD. However, blocking even a single global pandemic can yield 10: 1 profits for this investment. For example, the global total cost to prevent the outbreak of severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (SARS) in 2002 was estimated at US $ 40 billion.