It is such a deadly and mysterious contagion that we know nothing about it, except that it could be the next global epidemic, according to experts from the World Health Organization (WHO).
Codenamed ‘Disease X’, this mysterious pathogen has not even been discovered yet, but its threat has secured it a place on the WHO’s ‘most dangerous’ list – a catalog of potential future epidemics for which countermeasures current are insufficient or do not even exist.
But how can an unidentified disease be considered such a serious threat to public health?
The best way to think about it is that ‘Disease X’ is a placeholder for a contagious hazard that we haven’t found yet, but is pretty much safe. It’s a “known unknown” assumption that the WHO says we need to be prepared for, and that’s why the mystery disease is now in the global health agency’s R&D Plan for Priority Diseases.
“Disease X represents the knowledge that a serious international epidemic could be caused by a pathogen that is currently unknown to cause disease in humans,” the WHO explained.
The R&D Plan – which is reviewed annually – exists to prioritize the main emerging pathogens that can cause serious outbreaks in the near future , for which there are few or no medical countermeasures.
The most dangerous diseases
The most recent review took place in February, and experts agreed that the following diseases most urgently require investigators’ attention: Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever ; Ebola virus disease and Marburg virus disease; Lassa fever; Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus and severe acute respiratory syndrome; Nipah and henipaviral diseases; Rift Valley fever; and the Zika virus.
This year, for the first time, the WHO added Disease X to the list, in recognition of the fact that it is highly likely that another pathogen will soon be added to this registry.
History tells us that the next big outbreak is likely to be something we haven’t seen before. As for where it might appear or what it would be, no one knows for sure, but there are a multitude of possible sources, including existing viruses that demonstrate new virulence and symptoms (such as the Zika virus), modified viruses escaped from laboratories or used as weapons. biological and zoonotic diseases transferred from animals to humans (such as Ebola virus or influenza)
While we can be thankful that Disease X does not exist yet, the likelihood that it will appear in the future is undoubtedly something we must take into account, in the hope that we can stay one step ahead of any future threats.
Reference: WHO: http://www.who.int/blueprint/priority-diseases/en/
