Abstract
The Global Virus Network (GVN) is a voluntary consortium of virology laboratories and affiliated scientists that seek to prevent and control global viral threats. The meetings of the GVN are characterized by academic, health center, government, and industry participation, sharing information that is designed to further the mutual mission. In September 2024, the meeting in Durban, South Africa, highlighted diseases and investigators from Africa, and paid special attention to pandemic preparedness. Selected highlights from the meeting are presented here, along with a call-to-action in defense of global partnerships for research in the origins of human and animal viruses, the risk to humans from other animal sources, the pathogenesis of given viruses, and their prevention and treatment. Discussions of laboratory discovery science are juxtaposed with development of vaccines, antiviral drugs, immunotherapies, and innovative field strategies for control of viral diseases.