The Viral Most Wanted
Join CEPI’s disease detectives as they investigate the viral families that have threatened human life for centuries.
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What is the viral family approach and how does it inform The Viral Most Wanted?
The viruses that put humanity at greatest risk to date come from 25 or so virus families. It is these families that are most likely to produce the next deadly viral threat.
Explore the collection
Read through the series of articles, each detailing a member or several members of viral families and the discoveries made by scientists in the fight to get ahead of the next Disease X.
Viral families for CEPI's priority pathogens
The Arenaviruses
The Coronaviruses
The Filoviruses
Matonaviruses and Togaviruses
The Poxviruses
The Paramyxoviruses
The Phenuiviruses
Other viral families
Other viral families
The Caliciviruses, Reoviruses and Astroviruses
Attackers from these three viral families cause hundreds of millions of cases of severe diarrhoea and vomiting every year - many of them deadly.
The Flaviviruses
Yellow Fever is now known as one of several deadly viral haemorrhagic fevers currently classified a Flavivirus, one of The Viral Most Wanted.
The Hantaviruses
Some Hantaviruses focus their attacks on blood vessels in the lungs, causing the blood to leak out and ultimately ‘drowning’ their victims.
The Nairoviruses
The prime suspect in this family is a deadly virus that causes its human victims to bleed profusely.
The Papillomaviruses and Polyomaviruses
These viral families are notorious for their oncogenic potential - their ability to cause rare, aggressive and often deadly cancers.
The Parvoviruses and Hepeviruses
While viruses in these families are not significant pandemic threats, they pose serious disease and death risks for vulnerable populations—particularly pregnant women.
The Pneumoviruses and Adenoviruses
Among these viruses is a pervasive pathogen that infects nearly all babies and children worldwide at least once— sometimes twice—before they reach the age of two
The Poxviruses
The viral family of one of the most fearsome contagious diseases in human history
The Retroviruses
The most nefarious Retrovirus—HIV—has infected 85 million and killed 40 million people worldwide.
The Rhabdoviruses
The most fearsome Rhabdovirus causes a killer infection which makes its victims foam at the mouth
The Picornaviruses
Large, persistent and deadly outbreaks of a crippling infection caused by one member of this viral family meant that it was once among the most feared diseases in the world
Other viral families
The 100 Days Mission
CEPI’s vision is for the world to be able to respond to the next Disease X with a new vaccine in 100 days. Achieving that goal could defuse the threat of a pathogen with pandemic potential.Learn more about how CEPI is helping the world prepare for future pandemics.