Washington, Berlin: World Bank President Jim Yong-kim warned on Tuesday that the world remains “dangerously unprepared” for deadly pandemics such as the Ebola outbreak that has killed thousands in West Africa.

“The Ebola outbreak has been devastating in terms of lives lost and the loss of economic growth in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone,” Jim said in a speech at Georgetown University in Washington.

“We need to make sure that we get to zero cases in this Ebola outbreak.

“At the same time, we need to prepare for future pandemics that could become far more deadly and infectious than what we have seen so far with Ebola,” he said, according to excerpts from his speech.

Jim said that a mix of international organisations like his own, governments, businesses, non-governmental groups and donors need to put more efforts into planning for future possible pandemics, “by building stronger health systems, improved surveillance and chains of supply and transportation, and fast-acting medical response teams”.

“We must learn the lessons from the Ebola outbreak because there is no doubt we will be faced with other pandemics in the years to come.”

He also said the World Bank and other multilateral groups are working on a concept financial facility aimed partly at encouraging countries to prepare better for disease outbreaks and partly to indemnify them.

“This could work like insurance policies that people understand, like fire insurance,” Kim said.

Ebola surfaced in West Africa less than one year ago and has since killed nearly 9,000 people despite intense international efforts to contain it.

Meanwhile, billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates says the world must use the lessons from battling Ebola to prepare for any future “war” against a global killer disease, with the help of new technology.

Gates, in Berlin for a donor conference of the GAVI alliance bringing vaccines to poor countries, said the risk of a worldwide pandemic meant it was reckless not to act now.

“A more difficult pathogen [than Ebola] could come along, a form of flu, a form of SARS or some type of virus that we haven’t seen before,” he said in an interview with AFP.

“We don’t know it will happen but it’s a high enough chance that one of the lessons of Ebola should be to ask ourselves: are we as ready for that as we should be? A good comparison is that we prepare ourselves for war — we have planes and training and we practise.”

He said this included building teams of volunteers who are ready to mobilise quickly in a public health emergency, similar to schemes developed in the countries hit hardest by Ebola: Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, which registered almost 9,000 deaths in the last year.

Gates, ranked by Forbes magazine as the world’s richest man with a net worth of some $80 billion (Dh293 billion), said the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation distributes about $4 billion each year to help the world’s neediest.

It is also a major contributor to the GAVI alliance, which on Tuesday drew pledges of $7.5 billion to help immunise 300 million more children in developing countries over the next five years.

Calling vaccines the “biggest saver of lives” worldwide, the 59-year-old praised German Chancellor Angela Merkel for hosting the GAVI conference and making vaccinations a priority of her G7 presidency this year.

However he said he was “concerned” about an anti-vaccination trend in the West, due to exaggerated fears of risks associated with the jabs, that was leading to dangerous outbreaks.

“Our focus is on the poor children where you have millions that die of vaccine-preventable disease. It’s unfortunate that you’re not getting 100-per cent coverage in the rich countries,” he said.

“They’re choosing to potentially infect somebody who can’t protect themselves,” he said, noting the renewed spread of illnesses such as measles and pertussis (whooping cough).

“I’m glad there are people who are championing reducing these misunderstandings in rich countries because of the risk that creates.”