![\"bill-gates2\"](\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/bill-gates2.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nA pandemic is one of the world\u2019s top three threats, and if not prepared for, could wipe out 30 million people in less than a year, philanthropist\u00a0Bill Gates<\/a><\/strong><\/span> says.<\/span><\/p>\n Microsoft\u2019s<\/a> co-founder said at the Munich Security Conference<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0in Germany Saturday that we\u2019re due for an apocalyptic sickness on the scale of the 1918 flu, which killed some 50 million people<\/a><\/strong><\/span>. The global crisis could strike in the next 10-15 years if we\u2019re not careful, Gates warned.<\/span><\/p>\n Bioterrorism<\/a><\/strong><\/span> has become feasible enough, he said, that a genetic engineer could use computers to create a synthetic airborne pathogen capable of wiping out a fraction of the world\u2019s population quickly.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe next epidemic could originate on the computer screen of a terrorist intent on using genetic engineering to create a synthetic version of the smallpox virus,\u201d he said, \u201cor a super contagious and deadly strain of the flu.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n But even if terrorists aren\u2019t to blame, nature is likely to take its course.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhether it occurs by a quirk of nature or at the hand of a terrorist, epidemiologists say a fast-moving airborne pathogen could kill more than 30 million people in less than a year,\u201d Gates said. \u201cAnd they say there is a reasonable probability the world will experience such an outbreak in the next 10 to 15 years.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Gates, who has been working to improve global health<\/a><\/strong><\/span> for 20 years, has long warned of such an outbreak, but the bio-terrorism angle appears to have sped up the \u201cDoomsday Clock<\/strong><\/span>,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0a symbolic warning of the likelihood of a global catastrophe.<\/span><\/p>\n Fears over pandemic have risen recently, as the World Health Organization reported in January that a new avian flu outbreak<\/a><\/strong><\/span> that was first detected late last year has affected at least 40 countries. Other strains of the virus have affected millions<\/a> <\/strong><\/span>dating back to 2013.<\/span><\/p>\n