Disease X may kill 50 million

A UK health expert has said that Disease X, the name given by the World Health Organisation (WHO), can cause another pandemic deadlier than Covid-19.

In an interview to Daily Mail, Kate Bingham, who served as the chair of the UK’s Vaccine Taskforce from May to December 2020, said the new virus could have a similar impact to the devastating Spanish Flu of 1919-1920. According to WHO, Disease X could be a new agent - a virus, a bacterium or fungus - without any known treatments.

Expressing her concern, Ms Bingham said, “Let me put it this way: the 1918-19 flu pandemic killed at least 50 million people worldwide, twice as many as were killed in World War I. Today, we could expect a similar death toll from one of the many viruses that already exist.”

If the world has to tackle the threat from Disease X, “the world will have to prepare for mass vaccination drives and deliver the doses in record time”, she told the Daily Mail.

The expert further said that scientists have identified 25 virus families, but there could be more than one million undiscovered variants, which may be able to jump from one species to another.