'Disease X' could bring the next pandemic: UK health expert

The World Health Organization (WHO) introduced the Disease X on its website in May this year.

According to a UK health expert, there is concern that 'Disease X', a term coined by the World Health Organisation (WHO), has the potential to trigger a more severe pandemic than Covid-19.

Kate Bingham, who previously chaired the UK's Vaccine Taskforce from May to December 2020, expressed the possibility that this novel virus could have a comparable impact on the Spanish Flu that occurred between 1919 and 1920. The WHO defines 'Disease X' as a new infectious agent, which could be a virus, bacterium, or fungus, for which there are currently no known treatments, reported DailyMail.

Expressing her concern, Bingham said, "Let me put it this way: the 1918-19 flu pandemic killed at least 50 million people worldwide, twice as many as were killed in World War I. Today, we could expect a similar death toll from one of the many viruses that already exist."

"To tackle the threat from Disease X, the world will have to prepare for mass vaccination drives and deliver the doses in record time", she further added.

The expert also mentioned that although scientists have recognised 25 virus families, there might be over a million undiscovered variations that have the potential to cross over from one species to another.

"In a sense, we got lucky with COVID-19, despite the fact that it caused 20 million or more deaths across the world. The point is that the vast majority of people infected with the virus managed to recover... Imagine Disease X is as infectious as measles with the fatality rate of Ebola. Somewhere in the world, it's replicating, and sooner or later, somebody will start feeling sick," said Bingham.

The WHO introduced Disease X on its website in May. This term signifies the awareness that a significant global epidemic could arise from a pathogen that is presently not known to cause human illness. The WHO began using this term in 2018 and one year later, the global spread of Covid-19 commenced.