- A UK health expert has said that Disease X, the name given by World Health Organisation (WHO), can cause another pandemic deadlier than Covid-19.
- Kate Bingham, chair of the UK’s Vaccine Taskforce, said the new virus could have a similar impact to the devastating Spanish Flu of 1919-1920.
- “The world will have to prepare for mass vaccination drives and deliver the doses in record time”, she told in the interview.
- According to WHO, Disease X could be a new agent – a virus, a bacterium, or a fungus – without any known treatments.
- Kate Bingham further said that scientists have identified 25 virus families, but there could be more than one million undiscovered variants.
A UK health expert has said that Disease X, the name given by World Health Organisation (WHO), can cause another pandemic deadlier than Covid-19. In an interview, Kate Bingham, who served as the chair of the UK’s Vaccine Taskforce from May to December 2020, said the new virus could have a similar impact to the devastating Spanish Flu of 1919-1920. According to WHO, Disease X could be a new agent – a virus, a bacterium, or a fungus – without any known treatments.
Expressing her concern, Ms. 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.”
If the world has 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 told in the interview. The expert further said that scientists have identified 25 virus families, but there could be more than one million undiscovered variants, which may be able to jump from one species to another.
Ebola had a fatality rate of around 67 percent, and she added that others like bird flu and MERS also killed a large number of people.
Ms. Bingham also explained why the number of pandemics is increasing. “The increase in outbreaks is the price we’re having to pay for living in the modern world. First, it’s increasingly connected through globalization. Second, more and more people are cramming into cities, where they often come into close contact with others,” said Ms. Bingham.
Viruses are jumping from one species to another because of deforestation, modern agricultural methods, and the destruction of wetlands.
WHO first mentioned about Disease X on its website in May. It said that the term “represents the knowledge that a serious international epidemic could be caused by a pathogen currently unknown to cause human disease”.
The WHO started using the term in 2018. And a year later, Covid-19 began to spread across the world.
(With inputs from agencies)
