Expert warns ‘Disease X’ could be next pandemic: What’s it?

The World Health Organization (WHO) along with health experts from around the world dubbed the potential next pandemic as ‘Disease X’ and said that it may already be on its way.

Health experts, who referred to this deadly virus as “Disease X,” warned that COVID-19 might be just a precursor to more devastating pandemics in the future.

According to a Daily Mail article, health expert Kate Bingham, who oversaw the UK’s vaccination taskforce from May to December 2020, has issued a warning saying that the pandemic brought on by the Disease X virus may kill at least 50 million people. She also suggested the possibility of this virus causing 20 times as many fatalities as COVID-19.

Also read: Adam Britton: What we know about man who is to be sentenced over sexual abuse of dogs

As per the Daily Mail report, while considering the severity of the virus, Bingham mentioned that the scientists have 25 identified virus families. She also said that there is a high chance that there can be more than one million unidentified variants.

What do we know so far about “Disease X”?

• The World Health Organization (WHO) has officially recognized the looming threat of Disease X and suggests that it may already be in motion, posing a significant global health challenge.
• COVID-19, which emerged in 2019, has already claimed nearly seven million lives worldwide. Dame Kate Bingham suggests that Disease X could be over seven times as deadly as COVID-19 and may originate from an existing virus.
• Drawing parallels with the catastrophic 1918–19 flu pandemic that killed over 50 million people, Dame Kate Bingham underscores the potential devastation Disease X could unleash. She highlights that there are numerous viruses with the capacity to cause such a pandemic, given the high replication and mutation rates of viruses.
• Scientists are diligently monitoring 25 virus families, each containing thousands of individual viruses, some of which have the potential to mutate into severe pandemics. This surveillance, however, does not account for viruses that may jump from animals to humans, posing an additional threat.
• Currently, there is no approved vaccine available for ‘Disease X’. Stressing on the importance of scientists developing a collection of different prototype vaccines for every threatening virus family, Bingham said that just a head start on vaccines for the deadly virus may help target its specific features.