Pandemic

Experts also cannot predict when the epidemic will reach its peak.
One of China's leading government-appointed experts, Zhong Nanshan, predicts that the outbreak of the disease, labelled as "demon" by Chinese President Xi, may peak in early February.

China is putting on lockdown a city of 11 million people considered the epicentre of a new coronavirus outbreak that has killed 17 and infected nearly 600, as health authorities around the world scramble to prevent a global pandemic.

With millions of Asians traveling on Jan. 21 for the Lunar New Year holiday, authorities in China confirmed that a new virus could be spread through human contact, reporting 15 medical staff had been infected and a fourth person had died.    

Want to save the world and earn a juicy return at the same time?

The World Bank has got a bond to sell you.

The Bank has launched its first pandemic bond, raising funds to help developing countries combat infectious diseases. The sale raised $322m in two separate three-year bond issues, with the Bank also issuing $100m of swaps offering pandemic protection.

The World Bank Group headquarters building in Washington, D.C. - Photo: Shiny Things / Flickr

In the wake of the deadly Zika and Ebola virus outbreaks, most countries are still completely unprepared for another potential pandemic, a new study has found, warning that a serious outbreak could result in "millions of deaths and cost trillions of dollars."

China could be facing the worst bout of bird flu to hit the country in a century, with Avian Influenza A(H7N9) accounting for the deaths of 79 people in January from the 192 human cases reported so far.

Zika, the mosquito-borne virus spreading through the Americas that has been linked to thousands of babies born with underdeveloped brains (microcephaly), is just the latest new disease to spread panic around the world. And wait! News just in that it can be sexually transmitted too!