Next pandemic disease X is deadliest than Covid-19

Disease X, as the World Health Organisation (WHO) calls it– might lead to another pandemic deadlier than the COVID pandemic we all have been dealing with since 2020.

“Disease X represents the knowledge that a serious international epidemic could be caused by a pathogen currently unknown to cause human disease. The R&D Blueprint explicitly seeks to enable early cross-cutting R&D preparedness that is also relevant for an unknown “Disease X”,” as the WHO defines it.

Here are the key points on this deadly disease revealed by Kate Bingham, who chaired the UK’s Vaccine Taskforce between May and December 2020.

“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.

Today, there are more viruses busily replicating and mutating than all the other life forms on our planet combined. Not all of them pose a threat to humans, of course – but plenty do,” Kate told Daily Mail.

Next pandemic driven by Disease X already on its way, may kill millions more

She explained that the virus can mutate into new variants that are better at causing infections and evading the immune system. “What this means is that we could soon face new viral mutants resistant to all the antiviral drugs and vaccines we’ve managed to develop so far,” she explains.

She has also shed light on the transmission of viruses from animals to humans. “The whole point of a virus is to replicate as many times as possible in as many hosts as possible. So they are continually mutating and latching on to different animals.

In fact, some of the most dangerous viruses — such as smallpox, measles, Ebola, and HIV — originated in animals and later became highly transmissible between humans,” she told the media.

Kate spoke about the risk that close to one million undiscovered viruses can put on human beings. “So far, scientists are aware of 25 virus families, each of them comprising hundreds or thousands of different viruses, any of which could evolve to cause a pandemic. Worse still, they estimate there could be more than one million undiscovered viruses which may be able to jump from one species to another, mutate dramatically and kill millions of human beings,” she told the media.

Why are pandemics increasing?

Kate explains that globalization coupled with urbanization and destruction of the nature are contributing to the growing incidences of pandemics. She emphasizes that deforestation, the use of modern agricultural methods, and the destruction of wetlands are responsible for the transmission of infectious diseases from animals to human beings as the loss of habitats is pushing animals to move closer to human habitations.

Next pandemic disease X is deadliest than Covid-19

Baca Artikel Menarik: