While the immediate dangers of the coronavirus appear to be over three years on from the respiratory disease bursting out of Wuhan, China, and bringing the entire world to a standstill, epidemiologists must remain vigilant for the next virus that has the theoretical potential to explode into a public health emergency.

The organisation has kept a list of “priority pathogens” since 2017, which compiles the diseases that pose the greatest potential threat to humanity and which we are, at present, most in need of more research into in order to ensure we are in a position to tackle them should they begin to spread.

The list, used by governments and public health organisations to guide their planning, will soon be revised again after the WHO brought together 300 scientists in November to reassess the danger represented by 25 viruses and bacteria with a view to reprioritising it.

“Targeting priority pathogens and virus families for research and development of countermeasures is essential for a fast and effective epidemic and pandemic response,” Dr Michael Ryan, executive director of WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme, said at the time.

An endemic disease frequently found in Africa, the Balkans, the Middle East and Asia, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever is most commonly spread when people are bitten by infected ticks or encounter sick livestock.

A disease of the blood carried by mosquitoes, who pass it on by biting humans or livestock such as cows, sheep, goats, buffalo and camels, Rift Valley fever has spread from Africa to Saudi Arabia and Yemen.