The world took a long time coping with the COVID-19 pandemic, and it seems like it is just not ready for yet another one. However, viruses have no mercy for humans. Here comes another form of disease that has recently gained the news limelight, and which holds the potential of turning into a pandemic. We are talking about "Disease X".
The term is actually a placeholder name coined by the World Health Organization in the year 2018. The disease holds the potential of turning into an international epidemic. The root cause of the disease is an unknown pathogen. What turns out to be alarming is the fact that the potential pandemic that can cause trouble to mankind due to disease X could be 20 times more dangerous than COVID-19. Disease X has been added to the list of pathogens that are considered the highest priority for research. Others on the list include Ebola and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). The placeholder name was adopted by the World Health Organization in order to make sure that the planning of the organization was flexible enough to cope with the unknown pathogen.
The US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director, Anthony Fauci expressed that the very concept of Disease X will push the World Health Organization's projects to center their research efforts on the complete classes of viruses, rather than focusing on just individual strains.
It is also important to note that in the year 2019, Public Health England reported that the antibiotic resistance of bacteria can also become a potential Disease X. At this time, the antibiotic resistance in gonorrhea was seen as an example.
Disease X in the World Economic Forum agenda
Disease X is an important aspect of the World Economic Forum agenda in Davos, Switzerland. Director of the World Health Organization, General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is set to meet other health officials in order to discuss Disease X.
The title of the meeting "Preparing for Disease X" is mentioned in the WEF agenda.
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