The World Health Organization (WHO) underscored on Saturday the critical need for global preparedness against a potential new pandemic known as ‘Disease X’. WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus asked governments around the world to join forces and form a ‘pandemic pact’ to combat the deadly Disease X, which might be 20 times deadlier than COVID-19, Fox News said. Speaking in front of an audience at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Mr Ghebreyesus expressed hope that countries will achieve a pandemic accord by May to confront this “common enemy.”
”There are things that are unknown that may happen, and anything happening is a matter of when, not if, so we need to have a placeholder for that, for the diseases we don’t know,” Mr Ghebreyesus said. “We lost many people [during COVID] because we couldn’t manage them. They could have been saved, but there was no space. There was not enough oxygen. So how can you have a system that can expand when the need comes?”, he added.
Disease X is not a real disease, but rather the name of a possible virus comparable to COVID-19
He further said that the WHO has already started implementing measures to prepare for another outbreak including the establishment of a pandemic fund and the creation of a ”technology transfer hub” in South Africa. “Equity. It was a serious problem. Many high-income countries were hoarding vaccines. To address the equity problem, we established the mRNA technology transfer hub in South Africa. This is to increase the local production…,” he explained.
Disease X is not a real disease, but rather the name of a possible virus comparable to COVID-19. It could be a novel agent, virus, bacteria, or fungus with no recognized treatment. The global health organization has classified the mystery disease with COVID-19, Ebola, Lassa fever, Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), Nipah, and Zika, all of which have caused extensive deaths during outbreaks. According to The Lancet, the WHO formally began using the term in 2018, referring to the next undiscovered illness with epidemic potential.
A WHO report from November 2022 mentions that Disease X is included to indicate an unknown pathogen that could cause a serious international epidemic. According to WHO, worldwide, the number of potential pathogens is very large, while the resources for disease research and development (R&D) are limited.
