Now, scientists fear if she is suffering from “Disease X”. But what is Disease X? Is it some mysterious new disease? Where does it come from? Read on to know.
Disease X is once again making news with a UK health expert warning that it can cause another pandemic like Covid-19 and kill millions of people. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has also taken a note of it, adding Disease X in the list of “priority diseases” on its website. The global health body has categorised the unknown disease among Covid-19, Ebola, Lassa fever, Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), Nipah and Zika, which have already caused widespread fatalities during outbreaks
What is disease x and it is some new disease
Disease x is a placeholder name that was adopted by the World Health Organization (WHO) in February 2018 on their shortlist of blueprint priority disease to represent a hypothetical, unknown pathogen that could cause a future epidemic. The WHO adopted the placeholder name to ensure that their planning was sufficiently flexible to adapt to an unknown pathogen.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the Director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, explained that the concept of Disease X would encourage WHO projects to focus their research efforts on entire classes of viruses rather than just individual strains. This approach would enhance the WHO’s ability to respond to unforeseen strains.
In 2020, experts, including some of WHO’s own expert advisors, speculated that COVID-19, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus strain, met the requirement to be the first Disease X.
Where Does it Come From
However, Rottingen speculated that Disease X would be more likely to come from zoonotic transmission, where an animal virus that jumps to humans, saying: ‘it’s a natural process and it is vital that we are aware and prepare. It is probably the greatest risk’.