NEW DELHI: The scientists who helped discover the Ebola virus in 1976 have warned of an unknown number of new and potentially fatal viruses facing humanity, including “Disease X”.
“We are now in a world where new pathogens will emerge,” said Professor Jean-Jacques Muyembe Tamfum, who helped discover the Ebola virus in 1976, adding, “And that’s what threatens humanity.”
Muyembe’s statement comes on the heels of a patient infected with a pathogen that has not yet been identified but who had symptoms similar to Ebola.
In a remote town in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), a woman showed early signs of haemorrhagic fever last month. Her samples were tested for Ebola and other diseases with similar symptoms.
All came back negative, making the illness that afflicted the woman a mystery.
Scientists speculated whether she could be the patient zero of “Disease X,” the first known infection of a new pathogen that, researchers say, could be more contagious than the Covid-19 and with Ebola’s death rate of 50 to 90 percent.
In 2018, the World Health Organization (WHO) published its global plan for accelerating research and development during health emergencies and also included “Disease X” in its “R&D Blueprint for 2018”.
The 2018 R&D blueprint prioritized nine diseases for R&D, which consist of Covid-19, Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever, Ebola virus disease and Marburg virus disease, Lassa fever, Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS- CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)), Nipah and henipaviral disease, Rift Valley fever, Zika and the latest addition “Disease X”.
All these diseases lack an effective medicine or vaccine.
What is Disease X?
“X” stands for unexpected, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
The WHO said it “represents the science that a serious international epidemic could be caused by a pathogen that is not currently known to cause disease in humans.”
Disease X remains hypothetical for now, an outbreak that scientists and public health experts fear could lead to serious illnesses around the world if and when it occurs.
In a conversation with CNN, Muyembe warned that there are many more zoonoses to come – diseases that pass from animals to humans.
Zoonotic diseases such as yellow fever, rabies, brucellosis and Lyme disease have spread from animals to humans and have previously caused epidemics and pandemics. While the deadly HIV arose from a type of chimpanzee and then mutated into a deadly disease, SARS-CoV-2, along with SARS and MERS, are all coronaviruses that have suddenly passed from animals to humans.
(With input from agencies)
“We are now in a world where new pathogens will emerge,” said Professor Jean-Jacques Muyembe Tamfum, who helped discover the Ebola virus in 1976, adding, “And that’s what threatens humanity.”
Muyembe’s statement comes on the heels of a patient infected with a pathogen that has not yet been identified but who had symptoms similar to Ebola.
In a remote town in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), a woman showed early signs of haemorrhagic fever last month. Her samples were tested for Ebola and other diseases with similar symptoms.
All came back negative, making the illness that afflicted the woman a mystery.
Scientists speculated whether she could be the patient zero of “Disease X,” the first known infection of a new pathogen that, researchers say, could be more contagious than the Covid-19 and with Ebola’s death rate of 50 to 90 percent.
In 2018, the World Health Organization (WHO) published its global plan for accelerating research and development during health emergencies and also included “Disease X” in its “R&D Blueprint for 2018”.
The 2018 R&D blueprint prioritized nine diseases for R&D, which consist of Covid-19, Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever, Ebola virus disease and Marburg virus disease, Lassa fever, Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS- CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)), Nipah and henipaviral disease, Rift Valley fever, Zika and the latest addition “Disease X”.
All these diseases lack an effective medicine or vaccine.
What is Disease X?
“X” stands for unexpected, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
The WHO said it “represents the science that a serious international epidemic could be caused by a pathogen that is not currently known to cause disease in humans.”
Disease X remains hypothetical for now, an outbreak that scientists and public health experts fear could lead to serious illnesses around the world if and when it occurs.
In a conversation with CNN, Muyembe warned that there are many more zoonoses to come – diseases that pass from animals to humans.
Zoonotic diseases such as yellow fever, rabies, brucellosis and Lyme disease have spread from animals to humans and have previously caused epidemics and pandemics. While the deadly HIV arose from a type of chimpanzee and then mutated into a deadly disease, SARS-CoV-2, along with SARS and MERS, are all coronaviruses that have suddenly passed from animals to humans.
(With input from agencies)