- EXCLUSIVE: In a new documentary the world's richest man made the claim
- Footage seen by MailOnline, set to be aired next week, shows his worries
- Climate change and the ease of global travel is allowing for diseases to spread
- There is a lack of resources available to fight a fatal outbreak, Mr Gates said
By Stephen Matthews For Mailonline
Published: 11:12 BST, 30 June 2017 | Updated: 11:37 BST, 30 June 2017
A deadly mosquito-borne pandemic poses a greater threat to humankind than global war, billionaire Bill Gates warns.
In a hard-hitting new documentary, the world's richest man said a killer bug could wipe out 10 million people without warning.
Footage seen by MailOnline, set to be aired next week, shows the philanthropist's worries towards the danger of disease-carrying mosquitos.
An outbreak could mimic the damage of the Ebola epidemic in late 2014 or the burden of that of the deadly SARS outbreak in 2003, experts worry.
Climate change warming the planet is allowing for mosquitos to spread from their usual habitats, posing a risk to many in the northern hemisphere.
While growing populations in these dense areas and the increasing ease of global travel mean the danger of a pandemic looms large if a virus was to break out - of which the likelihood is growing.
In a hard-hitting new documentary, the world's richest man, Bill Gates, said a killer bug could wipe out 10 million people without warning
WHY DOES BILL GATES CARE?
Bill Gates' latest comments come just months after the Microsoft founder announced details of a major project to tackle the Zika virus.
On behalf of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, he donated £14.5 million to find a cure to the most recent threat to humanity.
The tropical virus has the ability to infect more than two billion people in total before it dies out completely, statisticians predict.
Mr Gates has almost solely dedicated the past decade of his life to building up the charitable enterprise, after leaving Microsoft in 2006.
The foundation has since pumped billions of pounds into health programmes around the world, including infectious disease controls.
Mr Gates made the claim amid rising tension between Russia and North Korea, which has generated genuine fears of deadly conflict.
Lack of resources
The threat is heightened by the lack of resources available to fight a fatal outbreak that could spread around the world at lightning speed, he said.
Speaking on the documentary, titled Mosquito, Mr Gates said millions are adamant such outbreaks only occur in third-world countries.
He said: 'At the top of the list of things I worry about, the risk of a very serious pandemic is quite substantial.
'If you say what could kill 10 million people – yes a war could, but a pandemic is probably even more likely to come and surprise us in that way.'
Recent epidemic
The documentary, which will be broadcast on the Discovery Channel, looked into the recent Zika virus epidemic that struck more than 70 countries.
Researchers on the programme also warned of the danger of dengue virus, known to be spreading rapidly throughout the world.
The plight of millions of children in Africa, where malaria is rife and kills two people each minute, was also touched upon.
Footage seen by MailOnline, set to be aired next week, shows the philanthropist's worries towards the danger of disease-carrying mosquitos
All of the above viruses, and others including the West Nile and Chikungunya, pose a similar threat to humanity, the documentary warns.
'Spread like wildfire'
Each has the ability to 'spread like wildfire' - something that was unthinkable 20 years ago, said Dr Bart Knols, who has devoted his career to the study of mosquitoes.
Disease-carrying mosquitos kill more than 750,000 people a year, many of whom being children, global figures have shown.
Mr Gates' comments come as a stark warning, especially seeing as the 61-year-old has previously said bio-terrorism could wipe out 30 million.
RECENT DEADLY OUTBREAKS
In 2003, Sars – a serious form of pneumonia – spread to six of the world's seven continents within months, infecting an estimated 8,000 people and killing 750.
More recently, Ebola – a grisly disease ravaging West Africa with a death toll over 11,000 – threatened to go pandemic in late 2014 after cases seen in travelers arriving back in North America and Europe.
Emerging diseases pose the biggest problem, since they involve unknown pathogens with no existing vaccinations.
The most dangerous are highly contagious but have delayed symptom onset, meaning that infected people unwittingly spread the disease to many others before realizing they are sick.
Shape-shifting diseases that mutate fast are almost impossible to vaccinate against. In today's hyper-mobile, city-dominated world, a deadly disease combining these three features could spell doom for the human race.
Before the turn of the year, Mr Gates also said that health organisations across the world are unprepared for a major flu pandemic.
'Vulnerable right now'
Stating the world was 'a bit vulnerable right now', he claimed previous pandemics have exposed serious weaknesses in the ability to tackle health emergencies.
In 1918, the flu pandemic killed 250,000 people in Britain and 65 million around the world - three times as many as World War I.
If it was to hit today, it would have even more severe effects, considering how quickly it can spread between people, Mr Gates said in the new programme.
Earlier this year he warned world leaders in Munich there is 'reasonable probability' of a pandemic to strike in the next 10 to 15 years.
Major Zika project
His latest comments come just months after the Microsoft founder announced details of a major project to tackle the Zika virus.
On behalf of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, he donated £14.5 million to find a cure to the most recent threat to humanity.
The tropical virus has the ability to infect more than two billion people in total before it dies out completely, statisticians predict.
Mr Gates has almost solely dedicated the past decade of his life to building up the charitable enterprise, after leaving Microsoft in 2006.
The foundation has since pumped billions of pounds into health programmes around the world, including infectious disease controls.
The full Mosquito documentary can be watched on the Discovery Channel on Thursday July 6 at 9pm.
THE 1918 FLU OUTBREAK - THE WORST THE WORLD HAS SEEN
Lacking a reliable cure, public health groups concentrated on prevention
The deadly flu virus attacked more than one-third of the world's population, and within months had killed more than 65 million people - three times as many as the World War I - and did it more quickly than any other illness in recorded history.
Most influenza outbreaks disproportionately kill juvenile, elderly, or already weakened patients; in contrast the 1918 pandemic predominantly killed previously healthy young adults.
To maintain morale, wartime censors minimized early reports of illness and mortality in Germany, Britain, France, and the United States.
However, newspapers were free to report the epidemic's effects in Spain, creating a false impression of Spain as being especially hard hit - and leading to the pandemic's nickname Spanish flu.
The close quarters and massive troop movements of World War I hastened the pandemic and probably both increased transmission and augmented mutation, researchers believe.
The global mortality rate from the 1918/1919 pandemic is not known, but an estimated 10 per cent to 20 per cent of those who were infected died, with estimates of the total number of deaths ranging from 50 to 100 million people.