Jakarta, CNN Indonesia –
Epidemiologist from Griffith University, Dicky Budiman stated illness or disease X is a form of naming an as yet unknown disease. He said X in English is often associated with something that is not yet known.
“This X disease is the naming of an unknown disease,” Dicky told CNNIndonesia.com, Sunday (3/1).
Dicky said that disease X is considered a disease that has the potential to cause a pandemic, cause large numbers of deaths, and is easily contagious. The World Health Organization classified a disease as disease X in 2015.
Furthermore, Dicky revealed that there are about 1.6 million viruses that are not yet known to humans. Of that total, around 827 thousand are considered to be able to infect humans.
Of that number, only 263 viruses can actually infect humans.
“Which means that only less than 1 percent of the 827 thousand. Which means that we do not know 99 percent of the viruses that could be a threat to a pandemic. It is extraordinary that the threat of a pandemic is caused by a virus that originates from animals,” he said.
The lack of virus identification has made many global initiatives to make studies. In addition, the importance of global security in the health sector.
On the other hand, Dicky conveyed that WHO has a list of priority diseases to be handled, for example Covid-19, HIV, to Ebola. In the global health regulation designed by WHO, it also hopes that countries have the ability to detect early threats from an outbreak, whether an epidemic, an epidemic or a pandemic.
Detection, he said, is the key to tackling a pandemic. The ability to trace disease, especially in animals is also an important part to master.
With regard to disease X reported in Congo, he saw it was not Ebola. However, he said the findings show that a pandemic threat is getting bigger. In fact, the world is entering a pandemic era in 2021.
“The pandemic era means that the threat of a pandemic will be more serious. This means that our health system must be stronger. During the Covid-19 pandemic we are getting tests of our health system,” said Dicky.
As a person involved in the formulation of health policy, he reminded that pandemics occurred once every five years in the last 20 years. So, he predicts the disease pandemic can occur more quickly.
Some of the main causes of pandemics occur more quickly, he continued, because of interactions between humans, between animals, and higher levels of the wild. Ignoring the principle of natural balance is also a cause.
“That’s why we encourage the world to approach it one health, “he said.
More than that, he said the one health approach is an approach that harmonizes health and environmental development. Discharges with humans will cause huge losses in the health sector.
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