Respiratory pathogens like influenza and COVID-19 are being investigated as possible causes of this new Disease X. According to NPR, so are malaria and measles. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as other countries, are standing by to offer support.
Right now, Disease X preliminarily appears to be airborne as it circulates in the African Congo, with 400 cases so far and 79 deaths as I write this. The term refers to a newly, not yet named, pathogen, which is an organism that can produce disease with pandemic potential.
We need to make sure that we have the resources to intervene quickly" both for the local population's wellbeing and to ensure the disease doesn't cross international borders. Authorities are all over this right now -- and that's a very good sign.
Since it was first named in 2017, COVID-19 is the first officially named Disease X. According to the World Health Organization, more than 300 scientists continue to study and research more than 25 virus families while this new one has hit.
Is it an infectious disease? Is it a non-infectious disease? If we talk about infection diseases, is this a viral infection? Is it a bacterial infection? Is it a fungal infection? Is it a parasitic infection? There are so many things we don't know. We want to know very quickly, what is this disease? The world is wondering.
Situations like this occur probably several times a year around the world. Most times, an unidentified disease is in fact identified as something that's known and brought under control locally. However, in all such instances the concern is that the disease will take off and spread around the world, as COVID-19 did.
According to the New Scientist website, these viruses have the potential to cause the next epidemic or a new global pandemic like COVID-19. Now that the second one is officially alive, and because global pandemics are a continued concern, the big question is how worried we should be,
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According to New Scientist, COVID-19 was the first Disease X. The coronaviruses were long seen as a prime contender for producing a new pandemic before the COVID-19 outbreak even happened. COVID-19 spurred the development of novel vaccine designs that could be quickly repurposed to target Disease X.
This list of priority pathogens has become a reference point for the research community on where to focus energies to manage the next threat and is the agreed direction for where we -- as a global research community -- need to invest energy and funds to develop tests, treatments and vaccines.
The most studied, monitored, and researched viruses besides Disease X include Crimean-Cong hemorrhagic fever, Ebola virus disease and Marburg virus disease, Lassa fever, Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Nipah and henipaviral diseases, Rift Valley fever, and Zika.