Ebola virus particle. Image: NIAID
There are more ebola viruses out there lying in wait—pathogens with limited available medical countermeasures and-or treatment networks that are ready to strike at pretty much any time. The next epidemic is more or less foretold.Earlier this week, the WHO released its list of the nine pathogens most likely to be behind that next epidemic, an unpleasant bunch ranging from Crimean Congo haemorrhagic fever to standbys MERS and SARS. The list, which is to be reviewed annually, comes courtesy of a panel of scientists and public health experts convened at the org's Geneva headquarters and drawn from disciplines including but not limited to virology, microbiology, immunology, clinical medicine, and computational modelling.The point of the WHO's list is essentially to ensure that ebola doesn't happen again by accelerating R&D for the disease threats most likely to emerge in the very near future. According to the WHO, the list forms the "backbone" of a new program called the "WHO Blueprint for R&D preparedness."The pathogen roster wasn't entirely obvious. As WHO policy adviser Cathy Roth tells Science News, "We discussed a large number of diseases. There was a lively debate."If doomful diseases like HIV and malaria seem conspicuously absent, that's because the panel determined that they already have "major disease control and research networks … and an existing pipeline for improved interventions," according to the WHO.Of course, the list is the easy part. Next up is actually doing something about these threats before they go full ebola on us.