Disease X: What is Disease X? Is deadly Chinese Bird flu disease X?

A DEADLY flu virus is circulating among the poultry in China, killing 38 percent of those it infects, as scientists warn it could emerge as the next pandemic. Could the H7N9 virus be Disease X?


Scientists believe the H7N9 virus could be the next worldwide pandemic.

The strain of the virus can be transmitted from birds to humans and so far 1,625 people in China are known to have been infected with the virus - 623 have died.

H7N9 belongs to a family of type A flu viruses and is closely related to avian bird flu, which crossed into humans in 2003 and has killed around 600 people worldwide.

The latest disease outbreak comes amid a warning by the World Health Organisation over Disease X - an unknown disease which may not always come from an identified source.

The new strain of bird flu is “younger and stronger” than the previous form.

However, the WHO has not yet confirmed whether they are naming the virus Disease X.

What is Disease X?

The World Health Organisation has created a name for a disease which may not even exist - Disease X.

The list includes up to 10 “blueprint priority diseases” requiring immediate attention based on epidemic potential or lack of sufficient countermeasures.

Disease X:

Disease X: Scientists believe the outbreak of Chinese bird flu could be next worldwide pandemic (Image: Getty )

Among those included are well-known deadly viruses such as Ebola, Zika and SARS, along with less-known diseases such as Lassa fever and Marburg virus disease.

However among the line-up is Disease X, which “represents the knowledge that a serious international epidemic could be caused by a pathogen currently unknown to cause human disease,” WHO said.

The selection of diseases is known as the 2018 R&D Blueprint and was published in February this year.

The list was started in response to the Ebola crisis in 2014 which infected nearly 29,000 people and killed more than 11,000.

Disease X:

Disease X: The new strain of bird flu is younger and stronger than the previous form (Image: Getty )

The 2014 outbreak was the largest since the virus was first discovered in 1976 and included a total of 28,616 confirmed, probable and suspected cases and 11,310 deaths in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, according to WHO.

Instead of waiting until an epidemic has spread to develop a vaccine, governments recognised research and development needs to be part of the response.

Experts have said the path to finding a vaccine fast involves creating so-called “platform technologies” in advance.

Scientists can develop customised vaccines so when an outbreak happens, they can sequence the unique genetics of the particular virus and enter the correct sequence into the platform to create a new vaccine.

Disease X:

Disease X: The World Health Organisation is developing a vaccine for the unknown Disease X (Image: Getty )

In the case of Ebola, this meant an effective vaccine could be developed and tested in 12 months rather than the usual five to 10 years.

Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said to develop these platforms scientists have to study entire classes of viruses, such as the flaviviruses, which include Japanese encephalitis, Yellow Fever, Zika and West Nile virus.

He said: “If you develop an understanding of the commonalities of those, you can respond more rapidly.”

Disease X could hit the world at any time and could be a mutation of an already known disease, such as influenza.

The Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 was one of the deadliest in history and infected half a billion people and killed more than 20m.

But Disease X could be an undiscovered disease transmitted to humans from animals, such as HIV, which initially spread from chimpanzees and has infected 70m people and killed more than 35m since 1983.

However, Disease X could also be deliberately developed and spread by humans.

It is understood 16 countries including the United States, have had or are suspected of having biological weapons programmes.