account@todaytripura.comDISEASE X PANDEMIC WHAT’S HAPPENING?
The next pandemic could take 50 million lives, said Dame Kate Bingham, who chaired the UK’s Vaccine Taskforce, saying that it might already be on its way and that Covid-19 was not that lethal.
The new pandemic has been dubbed Disease X by World Health Organisation (WHO) and Bingham says it could be 20 times deadlier than Coronavirus.
COVID-19, which emerged in 2019, has already claimed the lives of nearly seven million people globally, according to WHO data.
Bingham told Daily Mail, “The world will have to prepare for mass vaccination drives and deliver the doses in record time…
Imagine Disease X is as infectious as measles with the fatality rate of Ebola (67 per cent).
Somewhere in the world, it’s replicating, and sooner or later, somebody will start feeling sick.”
LIKE 1918 FLU
Dame Kate Bingham cautioned that Disease X could prove to be several times more deadly as COVID-19.
She also said that the next pandemic might originate from an existing virus.
Drawing parallels with the catastrophic 1918-19 flu pandemic that killed over 50 million people, she said,
“Today, we could expect a similar death toll from one of the many viruses that already exist.”
“Today, there are more viruses busily replicating and mutating than all the other life forms on our planet combined.”
“Not all of them pose a threat to humans, of course – but plenty do,” she added while speaking to the Daily Mail.
BUT WHAT EXACTLY IS DISEASE X?
According to the WHO website, the term “represents the knowledge that a serious international epidemic could be caused by a pathogen currently unknown to cause human disease”.
It could be a new agent – a virus, a bacterium or fungus – without any known treatments.
The global health body has included Disease X in the list of its “priority diseases.”
At present, the priority diseases are:
COVID-19
Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic 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 diseases
Rift Valley fever
Zika
“Disease X”
BUT WHAT EXACTLY IS DISEASE X?
According to WHO website, the term “represents the knowledge that a serious international epidemic could be caused by a pathogen currently unknown to cause human disease”.
It could be a new agent – a virus, a bacterium or fungus without any known treatments.
The global health body has included Disease X in the list of its “priority diseases.”
WHO formally started using the term in 2018, which represents the next unknown disease of epidemic potential.
Experts have called for research to identify that next pathogen that can cause another pandemic.
WHO’S R&D BLUEPRINT
According to WHO, worldwide, the number of potential pathogens is very large, while the resources for disease research and development (R&D) is limited.
The global health body is working with scientists in developing customisable formula for creating vaccines.
Then, when an outbreak happens, they can sequence the unique genetics of the virus causing the disease and plug the correct sequence into the already-developed platform to create a new vaccine.
The R&D Blueprint was born as a result of the
Ebola emergency in West Africa which began in March 2014.
REASON BEHIND DISEASE X?
Uk lth expart …..
The rise in outbreaks, according to Bingham, is attributed to the growing trend of more people congregating in urban areas.
She also emphasizes that the continual destruction of millions of acres of natural habitat each year is contributing to this increase.
SO WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE?
According to Bingham, one of the initial actions that need to be taken is to allocate the necessary financial resources, essentially putting “the money on the table.”
Bingham said, “The monetary cost of inaction is seismic.
After all, even Covid-19 – a milder virus than Disease X – managed to leave us holding a bill for $16 trillion in both lost output and public health expenditure.”
VACCINES FOR DISEASE X
Regarding vaccines for Disease X, there are currently no approved vaccines available.
Nevertheless, Bingham underscores the importance of scientists developing a collection of “different prototype vaccines for every threatening virus family”.
She stressed that only a ‘head start’ on vaccines could help to target specific features of Disease X.
She further noted that the manufacturing capabilities vary
enormously across countries and regions.
Some vaccine formats may be suitable for large-scale production, while others may be easier to produce in the third world.
Third, we need to address the shortcomings of current vaccines, not all of which are durable, easy to transport or cheap.
Fourth, researchers must be encouraged to trial new technologies and approaches to vaccine design, potentially leading to more effective and efficient vaccines in the future.”
CONCLUSION
Meanwhile, UK scientists have already initiated vaccine development efforts targeting an unidentified ‘Disease X.’
The research, conducted at the high-security Porton Down laboratory complex in Wiltshire, involves over 200 scientists.
