“Potential Future Pandemic ‘Disease X’: What We Know So Far, Experts Warn”

Jakarta –

Three years have passed since the world was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. But now, the World Health Organization (WHO) is warning of the potential for a new pandemic to emerge in the future due to an undiscovered disease, which it calls ‘Disease X’.

This term is used by WHO as a substitute for describing diseases that are not yet known to medical science, but which can cause infection in humans. There are several criteria for a disease to be classified as disease X, such as:

• It spreads fast
• Do not have drugs and vaccines yet
• People do not yet have immunity to these diseases, viruses or bacteria

Scientists estimate that there are 1.67 million viruses yet to be discovered in mammals and birds and about half of these have the potential to infect humans. The recent series of H5N1 bird flu cases in Cambodia is an example.

President of the EcoHealth Alliance, Peter Daszak, highlighted the need for creativity and vigilance to track and anticipate the next outbreak.

“Nature is producing new viruses all the time. What we’re trying to say (with Disease X) is, let’s think creatively about designing vaccines and therapeutics and drugs that not only affect known agents but can also affect future emerging pandemic pathogens ,” he was quoted as saying by the National Post, Saturday (27/5/2023).

Presumably Zoonotic

Some public health experts believe that disease X will be zoonotic or originate from wild animals or pets which then spread to humans. The reason is that this is also what happens to nearly 75 percent of new types of diseases, such as ebola, HIV-AIDS, rabies, and COVID-19.

Barney Graham, senior adviser for global health equities at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, said that data shows nearly all infectious diseases of recent global concern, including COVID-19, are caused by animal viruses that transmit to humans. As a result, he predicts that zoonotic viruses will become pathogens that have the potential to become diseases in the future and become pandemics.

NEXT: There is a possibility that ‘Disease X’ originates from the Zombie virus

Watch Video “300 Scientists Research Potential Diseases to Become Pandemics, Including ‘Disease X’“

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