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“Disease X is as infectious as measles with the fatality rate of Ebola”, warns UK based health expert
Disease X, a term coined by the World Health Organisation (WHO), could trigger a pandemic that is even more deadly than Covid-19, warns a health expert from the UK. Disease X could be a new agent, such as a virus, bacterium, or fungus that has no known treatments. Kate Bingham, who chaired the UK's Vaccine Taskforce from May to December 2020, stated in an interview with Daily Mail that the new virus could have a similar impact to the devastating Spanish Flu of 1919-1920."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.” warned the UK-based health expert.
Scientists have identified 25 virus families so far, but health expert Kate Bingham warns that there could be more than a million undiscovered variants capable of jumping from one species to another. Bingham further expressed her concerns, stating that there is currently no known cure for Disease X. To deal with a pandemic of this scale, the world will have to prepare for mass vaccination drives and deliver the doses in record time.
"In a sense, we got lucky withCOVID-199, despite the fact that it caused 20 million or more deaths across the world. The point is that the vast majority of people infected with the virus managed to recover... Imagine Disease X is as infectious as measles with the fatality rate of Ebola. Somewhere in the world, it's replicating, and sooner or later, somebody will start feeling sick," said the UK expert, conveying the deathly potency of the Disease that shesays maybee replicating in somepartst of the world.
Kate Bingham has provided an explanation for the increase in pandemics that we have been witnessing. According to her, the rise in outbreaks is an unavoidable consequence of living in the modern world. This is due to two main reasons. Firstly, our world is becoming increasingly connected through globalization. Secondly, more and more people are moving to cities, where they are frequently in close proximity to others. The transmission of viruses from one species to another is primarily due to deforestation, modern agricultural techniques, and the destruction of wetlands.
Disease X was first mentioned by the WHO on its website in May. According to the WHO, the term refers to the possibility of a serious global epidemic caused by a pathogen that is currently unknown to cause human disease.