What Is Disease X That Can Cause Another Pandemic
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22 April 2024
Disease X is again making headlines after experts think that it can cause another pandemic like Covid-19 and kill millions of people
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The WHO has added the disease to the list of "priority diseases" on its website
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It has categorised the unknown disease among Covid-19, Ebola, Lassa fever, MERS, Nipah and Zika, which have caused widespread fatalities during outbreaks
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It "represents the knowledge that a serious international epidemic could be caused by a pathogen currently unknown to cause human disease"
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It could be a new agent - a virus, a bacterium or fungus - without any known treatments
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The Lancet said that WHO formally started using the term in 2018, which represents the next unknown disease of epidemic potential
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Experts have called for research to identify the next pathogen that can cause another pandemic
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In January, WHO's Director-General urged countries to come together and sign a "pandemic treaty" to tackle Disease X, which could be 20 times deadlier than Covid-19
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At present, the global health body is working with scientists in developing a customisable formula for creating vaccines
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When an outbreak happens, they can sequence the unique genetics of the virus and plug the correct sequence into the already-developed platform to create vaccine
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