What is Disease X, the new coronavirus pandemic that everyone’s talking about. The study suggests this deadly disease can kill over 50 million people.
Disease X has returned to the forefront of public attention, with a prominent UK health expert issuing a warning about its potential to trigger another pandemic on the scale of COVID-19, potentially resulting in millions of fatalities. The World Health Organization (WHO) has also acknowledged the significance of Disease X by including it in the list of “priority diseases” on its official website. Disease X now joins the ranks of other known infectious diseases like COVID-19, Ebola, Lassa fever, Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), Nipah virus, and Zika virus, all of which have previously caused widespread fatalities during outbreaks.
Chinese virologist Shi Zhengli, best known as ‘batwoman’, in a new study, also warned about the deadly disease in a new study. Shi and colleagues, in their study, evaluated the human spillover risk of 40 coronavirus species. She was quoted saying, “If a coronavirus caused diseases to emerge before, there is a high chance it will cause future outbreaks”.
Of the 40 species, six are already known to have caused diseases that infected humans, while there is evidence that a further three caused disease or infected other animal species. “It is almost certain that there will be future disease emergence and it is highly likely a (coronavirus) disease again,” the study warned.
The study comes as the former chair of the UK Vaccine Taskforce Kate Bingham in a new book warned of a next pandemic that could come from a million unknown viruses and kill about 50 million people.
This year in May, the World Health Organization (WHO) also warned of the threat of an inevitable next pandemic – Disease X, that is raising concerns across the globe.
What is Disease X?
Disease X is a term that predates the COVID-19 pandemic and was coined by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2018. It was included in the WHO’s “Blueprint list of priority diseases,” alongside other known infectious diseases like Ebola, SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), and Zika.
Disease X was described as representing the understanding that a serious global epidemic could potentially be caused by a pathogen that was then unknown to cause human disease. In essence, it was a placeholder for the possibility of a new, highly contagious and deadly infectious disease emerging in the future. The inclusion of Disease X in the Blueprint list underscored the need for preparedness and research to develop medical countermeasures in case such a pathogen were to emerge.
How Can Disease X Spread?
Disease X is expected to spread in ways similar to many other infectious diseases, and according to some public health experts, it is likely to be zoonotic in nature. Zoonotic diseases originate in wild or domestic animals and then have the potential to spill over and infect humans. This mode of transmission has been observed in diseases such as Ebola, HIV/AIDS, and COVID-19.
As per the experts, the COVID-19 pandemic killed around 20 million people globally.
(With inputs from IANS)
Published Date: September 26, 2023 10:35 PM IST
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