Disease X: The World's Next Pandemic is Possible

Disease X is potentially the world's next pandemic, and its occurrence is no longer a matter of "if,' but rather "when."

In recent years, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a list of diseases that it considers can cause future pandemics or at least the next pandemic.

Disease X is a concept or hypothetical name given by the WHO even before the outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

The WHO emphasized that disease X is reportedly a "placeholder name" that serve as a default pathogen or blueprint in order to quickly examine, analyze, and develop a vaccine should another pandemic occur.

The said list is a shortened one, in which the international health body is considering some pathogens, like bacteria and viruses, to be capable of causing significant infections, casualties, and disruptions worldwide.

Between late 2019 and early 2020, an unknown disease attacking the respiratory system sent a shockwave to the world, with first reported cases in Hong Kong followed by other countries in Asia, the Americas, Europe, and Africa.

The disease will be later known as the COVID-19 pandemic, declared as such by the WHO in March 2020, leading to local and international travel restrictions.

Disease X: The Next Pandemic Threat

(Photo : Photo by ROSLAN RAHMAN/AFP via Getty Images)

In a study published in the European Journal of Public Health in October 2022, researchers from the Italian Ministry of Health asserted the COVID-19 pandemic only proved that the world was both theoretically and practically unprepared when it comes to preventing emerging zoonotic infections.

Despite the WHO issuing the list of the next potential Disease X in 2018, Pathogen X took the guise of the new coronavirus and still caught the world off guard.

By estimate, the COVID-19 pandemic has killed millions of people, especially before vaccines were started to be developed and disseminated to the general public.

While the COVID-19 pandemic seems to be a past now, the WHO and other health organizations are still on alert, as the next pandemic or disease X could strike with little or without warning.

Also Read: New Research Shows that Rodents and Other City-Dwelling Animals are Least Likely to Cause the Next Pandemic

Potential Outbreak Sources

Somewhere in the outskirts of a city in the depths of a cave in Guangdong Province, could be the source of Disease X or in the high in the canopies of trees along the Kinabatangan River.

Moreover, the world's next pandemic could start from one of the thousands of species living in the Amazon rainforest, according to the charity organization EcoHealth Alliance.

Three years after the previous pandemic started, the threat of a deadly pathogen and invisible bug spreading again worldwide still remains.

The notion has kept health experts concerned, worrying where the next pandemic will originate and if Earth is ready now, USA Today reported.

In addition to the risk of another zoonotic disease, an infection jumping from animals to humans, experts are also concerned on anthropogenic viral outbreaks or those accidental laboratory leaks and biological terrorism.

Related Article: WHO Releases New List of the World's Deadliest Pathogens, Including the Unknown 'Disease X'