Medical experts are busy at the World Economic Forum in Davos, planning how to tackle Disease X. Some health officials warn that this disease could cause the “next pandemic.”
Disease X is a big topic at the forum in Switzerland. The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that it could infect 20 times more people than Covid-19. Other experts say it could be as infectious as measles and as deadly as Ebola.
The Evening Standard in London reports that many medical scientists are worried about Disease X. This worry has led to the development of vaccines at Porton Down laboratory, run by the UK Health and Security Agency’s (UKHSA) science and defence technology campus.
READ MORE: WHO admits ‘we are not prepared’ for next pandemic as Disease X could kill 50 million
In simple terms, Disease X is a placeholder name for an unknown illness that could emerge soon, according to medical scientists. Preparing for a new disease involves not just making a vaccine but also identifying animal diseases that could infect humans and spread fast.
“We’re trying to prepare so that if we have a new Disease X, a new pathogen, we’ve done as much work in advance as possible,” Professor Dame Jenny Harries, head of UKHSA, told Sky News in August 2023.
“Hopefully we can prevent it [a pandemic]. But if we can’t and we have to respond, then we have already started developing vaccines and therapeutics to crack it.”
The world has promised to give $1.15 billion to battle Disease X. Most health experts think a new pandemic is bound to happen sometime, not just maybe.