Disease X

Last updated

Colored Scanning electron microscope (SEM) image of SARS-CoV-2, speculated in 2020 as being the first virus to create Disease X SARS-CoV-2 (yellow).jpg
Colored Scanning electron microscope (SEM) image of SARS-CoV-2, speculated in 2020 as being the first virus to create Disease X

Disease X is a placeholder name that was adopted by the World Health Organization (WHO) in February 2018 on their shortlist of blueprint priority diseases to represent a hypothetical, unknown pathogen that could cause a future epidemic. [4] [5] The WHO adopted the placeholder name to ensure that their planning was sufficiently flexible to adapt to an unknown pathogen (e.g., broader vaccines and manufacturing facilities). [4] [6] Former Director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci stated that the concept of Disease X would encourage WHO projects to focus their research efforts on entire classes of viruses (e.g., flaviviruses), instead of just individual strains (e.g., zika virus), thus improving WHO capability to respond to unforeseen strains. [7]

Contents

In 2020, experts, including some of the WHO's own expert advisors, speculated that COVID-19, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus strain, met the requirements to be the first Disease X. [1] [2] [3] In December 2024, an unidentified disease in the Democratic Republic of the Congo was sometimes referred to as Disease X, after infecting over 400 people and killing at least 79. [8]

Rationale

Jeremy Farrar, Chair of the WHO R&D Blueprint Scientific Advisory Group Jeremy Farrar C0058569 Wellcome Images.jpg
Jeremy Farrar, Chair of the WHO R&D Blueprint Scientific Advisory Group

In May 2015, in pandemic preparations prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the WHO was asked by member organizations to create an "R&D Blueprint for Action to Prevent Epidemics" to generate ideas that would reduce the time lag between the identification of viral outbreaks and the approval of vaccines/treatments, to stop the outbreaks from turning into a "public health emergency". [4] [10] The focus was to be on the most serious emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) for which few preventive options were available. [10] [11] A group of global experts, the "R&D Blueprint Scientific Advisory Group", [12] was assembled by the WHO to draft a shortlist of less than ten "blueprint priority diseases". [4] [5] [10]

Since 2015, the shortlist of EIDs has been reviewed annually and originally included widely known diseases such as Ebola and Zika which have historically caused epidemics, as well as lesser known diseases which have potential for serious outbreaks, such as SARS, Lassa fever, Marburg virus, Rift Valley fever, and Nipah virus. [5] [11] Since then, COVID-19 has been added to the list. [13]

In February 2018, after the "2018 R&D Blueprint" meeting in Geneva, the WHO added Disease X to the shortlist as a placeholder for a "knowable unknown" pathogen. [4] [6] [14] The Disease X placeholder acknowledged the potential for a future epidemic that could be caused by an unknown pathogen, and by its inclusion, challenged the WHO to ensure their planning and capabilities were flexible enough to adapt to such an event. [5] [15] [16]

At the 2018 announcement of the updated shortlist of blueprint priority diseases, the WHO said: "Disease X represents the knowledge that a serious international epidemic could be caused by a pathogen currently unknown to cause human disease". [5] [6] [17] John-Arne Røttingen, of the R&D Blueprint Special Advisory Group, [9] said: "History tells us that it is likely the next big outbreak will be something we have not seen before", and "It may seem strange to be adding an 'X' but the point is to make sure we prepare and plan flexibly in terms of vaccines and diagnostic tests. We want to see 'plug and play' platforms developed which will work for any or a wide number of diseases; systems that will allow us to create countermeasures at speed". [6] [11] US expert Anthony Fauci said: "WHO recognizes it must 'nimbly move' and this involves creating platform technologies", and that to develop such platforms, WHO would have to research entire classes of viruses, highlighting flaviviruses. He added: "If you develop an understanding of the commonalities of those, you can respond more rapidly". [7]

Adoption

Jonathan D. Quick, the author of End of Epidemics, described the WHO's act of naming Disease X as "wise in terms of communicating risk", saying "panic and complacency are the hallmarks of the world's response to infectious diseases, with complacency currently in the ascendance". [18] Women's Health wrote that the establishment of the term "might seem like an uncool move designed to incite panic" but that the whole purpose of including it on the list was to "get it on people's radars". [19]

Richard Hatchett of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), wrote "It might sound like science fiction, but Disease X is something we must prepare for", noting that despite the success in controlling the 2014 Western African Ebola virus epidemic, strains of the disease had returned in 2018. [20] In February 2019, CEPI announced funding of US$34 million to the German-based CureVac biopharmaceutical company to develop an "RNA Printer prototype", that CEPI said could "prepare for rapid response to unknown pathogens (i.e., Disease X)". [21]

Parallels were drawn with the efforts by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and their PREDICT program, which was designed to act as an early warning pandemic system, by sourcing and researching animal viruses in particular "hot spots" of animal-human interaction. [22]

In September 2019, The Daily Telegraph reported on how Public Health England (PHE) had launched its own investigation for a potential Disease X in the United Kingdom from the diverse range of diseases reported in their health system; they noted that 12 novel diseases and/or viruses had been recorded by PHE in the last decade. [23]

In October 2019 in New York, the WHO's Health Emergencies Program ran a "Disease X dummy run" to simulate a global pandemic by Disease X, for its 150 participants from various world health agencies and public health systems to better prepare and share ideas and observations for combatting such an eventuality. [24] [25]

In March 2020, The Lancet Infectious Diseases published a paper titled "Disease X: accelerating the development of medical countermeasures for the next pandemic", which expanded the term to include Pathogen X (the pathogen that leads to Disease X), and identified areas of product development and international coordination that would help in combatting any future Disease X. [26]

In April 2020, The Daily Telegraph described remdesivir, a drug being trialed to combat COVID-19, as an anti-viral that Gilead Sciences started working on a decade previously to treat a future Disease X. [27]

In August 2023, the UK Government announced the creation of a new research center, located on the Porton Down campus, which is tasked at researching pathogens with the potential to emerge as Disease X. Live viruses will be kept in specialist containment facilities in order to develop tests and potential vaccines within 100 days in case a new threat is identified. [28]

In January 2024, during the World Economic Forum's annual meeting, Disease X was once again discussed as being a potential threat following the COVID-19 pandemic. [29] [30]

Strategy

A paper published in 2022 listed the following strategies in preparation for Disease X: [31]

Candidates

Zoonotic viruses

On the addition of Disease X in 2018, the WHO said it could come from many sources citing hemorrhagic fevers and the more recent non-polio enterovirus. [6] However, Røttingen speculated that Disease X would be more likely to come from zoonotic transmission (an animal virus that jumps to humans), saying: "It's a natural process and it is vital that we are aware and prepare. It is probably the greatest risk". [6] [11] WHO special advisor Professor Marion Koopmans, also noted that the rate at which zoonotic diseases were appearing was accelerating, saying: "The intensity of animal and human contact is becoming much greater as the world develops. This makes it more likely new diseases will emerge but also modern travel and trade make it much more likely they will spread". [11] [32]

COVID-19 (2019–present)

Marion Koopmans, member of the WHO R&D Blueprint Special Advisory Group MarionKoopmans2018.jpg
Marion Koopmans, member of the WHO R&D Blueprint Special Advisory Group

From the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, experts have speculated whether COVID-19 met the criteria to be Disease X. [33] [34] In early February 2020, Chinese virologist Shi Zhengli from the Wuhan Institute of Virology wrote that the first Disease X is from a coronavirus. [3] Later that month, Marion Koopmans, Head of Viroscience at Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam, and a member of the WHO's R&D Blueprint Special Advisory Group, [9] [35] wrote in the scientific journal Cell , "Whether it will be contained or not, this outbreak is rapidly becoming the first true pandemic challenge that fits the disease X category". [2] [36] [37] At the same time, Peter Daszak, also a member of the WHO's R&D Blueprint, wrote in an opinion piece in The New York Times saying: "In a nutshell, Covid-19 is Disease X". [1]

Synthetic viruses/bioweapons

At the 2018 announcement of the updated shortlist of blueprint priority diseases, the media speculated that a future Disease X could be created intentionally as a biological weapon. [38] In 2018, WHO R&D Blueprint Special Advisor Group member Røttingen was questioned about the potential of Disease X to come from the ability of gene-editing technology to produce synthetic viruses (e.g., the 2017 synthesis of Orthopoxvirus in Canada was cited), which could be released through an accident or even an act of terror. Røttingen said it was unlikely that a future Disease X would originate from a synthetic virus or a bio-weapon. However, he noted the seriousness of such an event, saying, "Synthetic biology allows for the creation of deadly new viruses. It is also the case that where you have a new disease there is no resistance in the population and that means it can spread fast". [11]

Bacterial infection

In September 2019, Public Health England (PHE) reported that the increasing antibiotic resistance of bacteria, even to "last-resort" antibiotics such as carbapenems and colistin, could also turn into a potential Disease X, citing the antibiotic resistance in gonorrhea as an example. [39]

In 2018, the Museum of London ran an exhibition titled "Disease X: London's next epidemic?", hosted for the centenary of the Spanish flu epidemic from 1918. [40] [41]

The term features in the title of several works of fiction that involve global pandemic diseases, such as Disease (2020), [42] and Disease X: The Outbreak (2019). [43]

Conspiracy theories

Disease X has become the subject of several conspiracy theories, claiming that it may be a real disease, or conceived as a biological weapon, or engineered to create a planned epidemic. [44] [45]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pandemic</span> Widespread, often global, epidemic of severe infectious disease

A pandemic is an epidemic of an infectious disease that has a sudden increase in cases and spreads across a large region, for instance multiple continents or worldwide, affecting a substantial number of individuals. Widespread endemic diseases with a stable number of infected individuals such as recurrences of seasonal influenza are generally excluded as they occur simultaneously in large regions of the globe rather than being spread worldwide.

A zoonosis or zoonotic disease is an infectious disease of humans caused by a pathogen that can jump from a non-human vertebrate to a human. When humans infect non-humans, it is called reverse zoonosis or anthroponosis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Epidemic</span> Rapid spread of disease affecting a large number of people in a short time

An epidemic is the rapid spread of disease to a large number of hosts in a given population within a short period of time. For example, in meningococcal infections, an attack rate in excess of 15 cases per 100,000 people for two consecutive weeks is considered an epidemic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SARS</span> Disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a viral respiratory disease of zoonotic origin caused by the virus SARS-CoV-1, the first identified strain of the SARS-related coronavirus. The first known cases occurred in November 2002, and the syndrome caused the 2002–2004 SARS outbreak. In the 2010s, Chinese scientists traced the virus through the intermediary of Asian palm civets to cave-dwelling horseshoe bats in Xiyang Yi Ethnic Township, Yunnan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emerging infectious disease</span> Infectious disease of emerging pathogen, often novel in its outbreak range or transmission mode

An emerging infectious disease (EID) is an infectious disease whose incidence has increased recently, and could increase in the near future. The minority that are capable of developing efficient transmission between humans can become major public and global concerns as potential causes of epidemics or pandemics. Their many impacts can be economic and societal, as well as clinical. EIDs have been increasing steadily since at least 1940.

The Global Research Collaboration for Infectious Disease Preparedness (GloPID-R) is an international initiative to anticipate and prepare for future threats from infectious diseases. GloPID-R is intended to be a means for facilitating communication and collaboration between its member bodies, as opposed to a funding or disaster response entity. Its secretariat is funded by the European Union through its Horizon 2020 initiative.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations</span> Public-private organization for vaccine development

The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) is a foundation that takes donations from public, private, philanthropic, and civil society organisations, to finance independent research projects to develop vaccines against emerging infectious diseases (EID).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John-Arne Røttingen</span> Norwegian physician

John-Arne Røttingen is a Norwegian medical scientist, research administrator and civil servant. He is currently the Chief Executive Officer of the Wellcome Trust. Previously, he served as Ambassador for Global Health in the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and has been a special advisor to the World Health Organization (WHO).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Hatchett</span> American epidemiologist

Richard Hatchett is an American oncologist and epidemiologist who has been serving as chief executive officer of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) in Oslo and London since 2017. He was awarded the Secretary of Health and Human Services's Award for Distinguished Service.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Syra Madad</span> American pathogen preparedness expert

Syra Madad is an American pathogen preparedness expert and infectious disease epidemiologist. Madad is the Senior Director of the System-wide Special Pathogens Program at NYC Health + Hospitals where she is part of the executive leadership team which oversees New York City's response to the Coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic in the city's 11 public hospitals. She was featured in the Netflix documentary series Pandemic: How to Prevent an Outbreak and the Discovery Channel documentary The Vaccine: Conquering COVID.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael J. Ryan (doctor)</span> Irish doctor and Chief Executive Director of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme

Michael Joseph Ryan is an Irish epidemiologist and former trauma surgeon, specialising in infectious disease and public health. He is executive director of the World Health Organization's Health Emergencies Programme, leading the team responsible for the international containment and treatment of COVID-19. Ryan has held leadership positions and has worked on various outbreak response teams in the field to eradicate the spread of diseases including bacillary dysentery, cholera, Crimean–Congo hemorrhagic fever, Ebola, Marburg virus disease, measles, meningitis, relapsing fever, Rift Valley fever, SARS, and Shigellosis.

Pandemic prevention is the organization and management of preventive measures against pandemics. Those include measures to reduce causes of new infectious diseases and measures to prevent outbreaks and epidemics from becoming pandemics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nahid Bhadelia</span> Indian-American infectious diseases physician and researcher

Nahid Bhadelia is an American infectious-diseases physician, founding director of the Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases Policy and Research (CEID) at Boston University, and an associate professor at the Boston University School of Medicine. She served as the Senior Policy Advisor for Global COVID-19 Response on the White House COVID-19 Response Team.

Planning and preparing for pandemics has happened in countries and international organizations. The World Health Organization writes recommendations and guidelines, though there is no sustained mechanism to review countries' preparedness for epidemics and their rapid response abilities. National action depends on national governments. In 2005–2006, before the 2009 swine flu pandemic and during the decade following it, the governments in the United States, France, UK, and others managed strategic health equipment stocks, but they often reduced stocks after the 2009 pandemic in order to reduce costs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Daszak</span> British zoologist

Peter Daszak is a British zoologist, consultant and public expert on disease ecology, in particular on zoonosis. He is the president of EcoHealth Alliance, a nonprofit non-governmental organization that supports various programs on global health and pandemic prevention. He is also a member of the Center for Infection and Immunity at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. He lives in Suffern, New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marion Koopmans</span> Dutch virologist

Maria Petronella Gerarda Koopmans is a Dutch virologist who is Head of the Erasmus MC Department of Viroscience. Her research considers emerging infectious diseases, noroviruses and veterinary medicine. In 2018 she was awarded the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) Stevin Prize. She serves on the scientific advisory group of the World Health Organization.

Sylvie Champaloux Briand is a French physician who is Director of the Pandemic and Epidemic Diseases Department at the World Health Organization. Briand led the Global Influenza Programme during the 2009 swine flu pandemic. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Briand launched the WHO Information Network for Epidemics which looked to counter the spread of COVID-19 misinformation.

Gary P. Kobinger is a Canadian immunologist and virologist who is currently the director at the Galveston National Laboratory at the University of Texas. He has held previous professorships at Université Laval, the University of Manitoba, and the University of Pennsylvania. Additionally, he was the chief of the Special Pathogens Unit at the National Microbiology Laboratory (NML) of the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) in Winnipeg, Manitoba, for eight years. Kobinger is known for his critical role in the development of both an effective Ebola vaccine and treatment. His work focuses on the development and evaluation of new vaccine platforms and immunological treatments against emerging and re-emerging viruses that are dangerous to human health.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Daszak, Peter (22 February 2020). "We Knew Disease X Was Coming. It's Here Now". The New York Times . Archived from the original on 16 March 2020. Retrieved 8 March 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 Gale, Jason (22 February 2020). "Coronavirus May Be 'Disease X' Health Experts Warned About". Bloomberg News . Archived from the original on 5 March 2020. Retrieved 8 March 2020.
  3. 1 2 3 Shi, Zhengli; Jiang, Shibo (2020). "The First Disease X is Caused by a Highly Transmissible Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus". Virologica Sinica. 35 (3): 263–265. doi: 10.1007/s12250-020-00206-5 . PMC   7091198 . PMID   32060789.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 "List of Blueprint priority diseases". World Health Organization . 7 February 2018. Archived from the original on 1 March 2020. Retrieved 20 March 2020.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Editorial (13 March 2018). "What is Disease X?". Economist . Archived from the original on 24 September 2022. Retrieved 20 March 2020. By listing Disease X, an undetermined disease, the WHO is acknowledging that outbreaks do not always come from an identified source and that, as it admits, "a serious international epidemic could be caused by a pathogen currently unknown to cause human disease".
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Barns, Tom (11 March 2018). "World Health Organisation fears new 'Disease X' could cause a global pandemic". The Independent . Archived from the original on 24 September 2022. Retrieved 20 March 2020.
  7. 1 2 Scutti, Susan (12 March 2018). "World Health Organization gets ready for 'Disease X'". CNN . Archived from the original on 2018-03-12. Retrieved 20 March 2020.
  8. ↑ Emanuel, Gabrielle (2024-12-05). "How worried should we be about Disease X?". NPR . Retrieved 2024-12-07.
  9. 1 2 3 4 "R&D Blueprint - Scientific Advisory Group members". World Health Organization . Archived (PDF) from the original on 22 January 2024. Retrieved 21 March 2020.
  10. 1 2 3 World Health Organization (6–7 February 2018). 2018 Annual review of diseases prioritized under the Research and Development Blueprint (PDF) (Report). Geneva, Switzerland. p. 17. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 March 2020. Retrieved 20 March 2020.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Nuki, Paul; Shaikh, Alanna (10 March 2018). "Scientists put on alert for deadly new pathogen – 'Disease X'" . The Daily Telegraph . Archived from the original on 2022-01-12. Retrieved 20 March 2018.
  12. ↑ "R&D Blueprint". World Health Organization . Archived from the original on 20 March 2020. Retrieved 21 March 2020.
  13. ↑ "Prioritizing diseases for research and development in emergency contexts (Published 2018, revision in progress 2023)". World Health Organization. Archived from the original on 25 October 2019. Retrieved 23 June 2023.
  14. ↑ Shaikh, Alanna; Nuki, Paul (22 July 2019). "What is 'Disease X', the mystery killer keeping scientists awake?" . The Daily Telegraph. ISSN   0307-1235. Archived from the original on 2022-01-12. Retrieved 18 January 2020.
  15. ↑ Lee, Bruce Y. (March 10, 2018). "Disease X is what may Become the Biggest Infectious Threat to our World". Forbes . Archived from the original on March 1, 2020. Retrieved March 11, 2018.
  16. ↑ "WHO | List of Blueprint priority diseases". WHO. Archived from the original on 10 September 2017. Retrieved 18 January 2020.
  17. ↑ Whittam Smith, Andreas (11 March 2018). "One hundred years on from the Spanish Flu, we are facing another major pandemic". The Independent . Archived from the original on 20 March 2020. Retrieved 20 March 2020.
  18. ↑ Gulland, Anne (15 May 2018). "Panic and complacency: how the world reacts to disease outbreaks" . The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 2022-01-12. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
  19. ↑ Miller, Korin (12 March 2018). "Disease X Might Cause The Next Big Global Epidemic". Women's Health . Archived from the original on 12 March 2018. Retrieved 18 January 2020.
  20. ↑ Hatchett, Richard (15 May 2018). "It might sound like science fiction, but Disease X is something we must prepare for" . The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 2022-01-12. Retrieved 20 March 2020.
  21. ↑ Gouglas, Dimitrios; Christodoulou, Mario; Plotkin, Stanley A.; Hatchett, Richard (November 2019). "CEPI: Driving Progress Towards Epidemic Preparedness And Response". Epidemiologic Reviews . 41 (1): 28–33. doi:10.1093/epirev/mxz012. PMC   7108492 . PMID   31673694.
  22. ↑ Shute, Joe (September 2019). "Virus hunters: Meet the scientists searching for Disease X" . The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 2022-01-12. Retrieved 20 March 2020.
  23. ↑ Gulland, Anne (11 September 2019). "Revealed: Public Health England 'hot on the trail' of Disease X" . The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 2022-01-12. Retrieved 20 March 2020.
  24. ↑ Alexander, Harriet (21 October 2019). "Disease X dummy run: World health experts prepare for a deadly pandemic and its fallout" . The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 2022-01-12. Retrieved 20 March 2020.
  25. ↑ Hamblin, James (28 March 2020). "The Curve Is Not Flat Enough". The Atlantic . Archived from the original on 24 September 2022. Retrieved 28 March 2020.
  26. ↑ Simpson, Shmona; Kaufmann, Michael C.; Glozman, Vitaly; Chakrabarti, Ajoy (March 2020). "Disease X: accelerating the development of medical countermeasures for the next pandemic". The Lancet Infectious Diseases . 20 (5): e108–e115. doi: 10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30123-7 . PMC   7158580 . PMID   32197097.
  27. ↑ Knapton, Sarah (1 April 2020). "Drug created to fight 'Disease X' over 10 years ago will be tested in battle against coronavirus" . The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 2022-01-12. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
  28. ↑ Adu, Aletha (6 August 2023). "New vaccine research centre in UK to help scientists prepare for 'disease X'". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077. Archived from the original on 13 August 2023. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
  29. ↑ "MSN". www.msn.com. Archived from the original on 2019-01-31. Retrieved 2024-01-19.
  30. ↑ Singh, Simrin (2024-01-17). "World leaders are gathering to discuss Disease X. Here's what to know about the hypothetical pandemic. - CBS News". www.cbsnews.com. Archived from the original on 2024-01-19. Retrieved 2024-01-19.
  31. 1 2 Mipatrini, Daniele; Montaldo, Chiara; Bartolini, Barbara; Rezza, Giovanni; Iavicoli, Sergio; Ippolito, Giuseppe; Zumla, Alimuddin; Petersen, Eskild (2022-10-17). "'Disease X'—time to act now and prepare for the next pandemic threat". The European Journal of Public Health. 32 (6): 841–842. doi:10.1093/eurpub/ckac151. ISSN   1101-1262. PMC   9713389 . PMID   36250806.
  32. ↑ Cousins, Sophie (10 May 2018). "WHO hedges its bets: the next global pandemic could be disease X". The BMJ . 361: k2015. doi:10.1136/bmj.k2015. ISSN   0959-8138. PMID   29748222. S2CID   13668695. Archived from the original on 6 February 2020. Retrieved 18 April 2020.
  33. ↑ Gulland, Anne (2020-01-09). "Have Chinese researchers uncovered the new disease X?" . The Daily Telegraph. ISSN   0307-1235. Archived from the original on 2022-01-12. Retrieved 18 January 2020.
  34. ↑ McKie, Robin (6 February 2020). "Coronavirus: the huge unknowns". The Guardian . Archived from the original on 21 March 2020. Retrieved 21 March 2020. This hope now looks forlorn with the sudden emergence of the respiratory disease Covid-19, which has rapidly acquired most of the characteristic of a Disease X.
  35. ↑ "R&D Blueprint: Marion Koopmans (Biography)". World Health Organization . Archived (PDF) from the original on 22 January 2024. Retrieved 20 March 2020.
  36. ↑ Mercer, David (25 February 2020). "Coronavirus outbreak could be feared 'Disease X', says World Health Organisation adviser". Sky News . Archived from the original on 14 March 2020. Retrieved 8 March 2020.
  37. ↑ Aaro, David (27 February 2020). "What is Disease X?". Fox News . Archived from the original on 17 March 2020. Retrieved 8 March 2020.
  38. ↑ Cousins, Sophie (2018-05-10). "WHO hedges its bets: the next global pandemic could be disease X". BMJ. 361: k2015. doi:10.1136/bmj.k2015. ISSN   0959-8138. PMID   29748222. S2CID   13668695. Archived from the original on 2020-02-06. Retrieved 2020-01-18.
  39. ↑ Campbell, Denis (11 September 2019). "Bacteria developing new ways to resist antibiotics, doctors warn". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 March 2020.
  40. ↑ Addley, Esther (November 2018). "Queen Victoria's mourning dress among items in Disease X exhibition". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 5 October 2023. Retrieved 20 March 2020.
  41. ↑ "Disease X: London's next epidemic?". Museum of London . Archived from the original on 5 October 2023. Retrieved 20 March 2020.
  42. ↑ N. J. Croft (January 2020). Disease X. Sideways Books. ASIN   B081XS6FN7.
  43. ↑ Burdette, Shannon C. (October 2019). Disease X: The Outbreak. Amazon Digital Services LLC - KDP Print US. ISBN   978-1703667806.
  44. ↑ Graham, Freya (2024-01-15). "'Disease X' is stoking the fire of right-wing conspiracies". Metro. Archived from the original on 2024-01-16. Retrieved 2024-01-16.
  45. ↑ Swann, Sara. "PolitiFact - Conspiracy theorists falsely claim 'Disease X' is the next 'plandemic'". @politifact. Archived from the original on 2024-01-16. Retrieved 2024-01-16.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.