GENEVA: The coronavirus may never go away and populations will have to learn to live with it just as they did with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned, as the global death toll from the disease nears 300,000.

A vaccine could allow countries and economies to fully reopen from lockdowns and potentially earn millions of dollars for its creators.

But the WHO said the virus might never be wiped out entirely.

“This virus may become just another endemic virus in our communities and this virus may never go away,” said Michael Ryan, global health body’s emergencies director in Geneva. “HIV has not gone away — but we have come to terms with the virus.”

A vaccine for the coronavirus could be ready in a year’s time under an “optimistic” scenario, based on data from trials that are under way, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said on Thursday.

“We can see the possibility if everything goes as planned that some of them (vaccines) could be ready for approval in a year from now,” Marco Cavaleri, the EMA’s head of biological health threats and vaccines strategy, said.

“These are just forecasts based on what we are seeing. But, again, I have to stress that this is a best-case scenario, we know not all vaccines that come into development may not make it to authorization and disappear,” he added.

“We know also that there may be delays,” he continued.

The agency was, however, “a bit sceptical” about reports that a vaccine could be ready as soon as September.

The prospect of the disease hanging around leaves governments across the world facing a delicate balancing act between suppressing the pathogen and getting economies up and running.

The United States Federal Reserve said prolonged shutdowns to stem the spread of the virus could cause lasting economic damage in America.

US President Donald Trump has been pushing for a swift resumption of economic activity in the country, often against the advice of health officials, as he tries to jumpstart the world’s largest economy before the November election.

Top infectious diseases expert Anthony Fauci said reopening too soon risked triggering uncontrollable outbreaks, but the president on Wednesday dismissed that call for caution as “not acceptable.”

World leaders past and present insisted on Thursday that any eventual Covid-19 vaccines and treatments should be made available to everyone, free of charge.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan were among more than 140 signatories of a letter saying any vaccine should not be patented while the science should be shared between nations.

The World Health Assembly (WHA), the policy-setting body of the WHO, holds its annual general meeting next week.

The signatories called on the WHA to rally behind the cause.

“Governments and international partners must unite around a global guarantee which ensures that, when a safe and effective vaccine is developed, it is produced rapidly at scale and made available for all people, in all countries, free of charge,” the letter said.

“The same applies for all treatments, diagnostics, and other technologies for Covid-19.”

The letter was signed by Senegalese President Macky Sall and Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo.

Former presidents and prime ministers among the signatories included Shaukat Aziz, Jan Peter Balkenende, Jose Manuel Barroso, Gordon Brown, Helen Clark, Felipe Gonzalez, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Aleksander Kwasniewski, Mary McAleese, Olusegun Obasanjo and Juan Manuel Santos.

The letter comes amid fury in France after pharmaceutical giant Sanofi said it would reserve first shipments of any Covid-19 vaccine for the US.

The French multinational’s chief executive, Paul Hudson, said the US would get first dibs because its government was helping to fund the vaccine research.