Geneva: The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, had warned yesterday that we should be prepared to deal with a pandemic that is more deadly than Covid. Now, along with the warning, the WHO has also released a list of diseases that could cause a pandemic.
Apart from Ebola, Sars and Zika, the unknown disease ‘Disease X’ has also been placed on the list of concern.
The ‘X’ factor in ‘Disease X’ is so called because the cause of the disease is not known. The World Health Organization started using this term in 2018.
Experts also suggest that the next disease X will be ‘zoonotic’ like Ebola and Covid. ‘Disease X’ can be caused by viruses, bacteria and fungi. There are arguments that the pathogen can be human.
Other diseases listed by WHO are Marburg virus, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, Lassa fever, Nipah, Henipaviral diseases, Rift Valley fever and Middle East respiratory syndrome.
