'Disease X' Added To List Of Potential Pandemic Killers By WHO

Listing 'Disease X' among priority diseases, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has called for urgent measures to accelerate research and development to tackle it, as it could 'potentially trigger a deadly global epidemic in the near future'. "Disease X" was listed in the 2018 annual review of R&D Blueprint, a list developed by the WHO to identify, prioritize and accelerate research and development for diseases that lack efficacious drugs and/or vaccines, and pose a public health risk.

The R&D Blueprint was born as a result of the Ebola emergency in West Africa which began in March 2014. According to WHO, the name 'Disease X' "represents the knowledge that a serious international epidemic could be caused by a pathogen currently unknown to cause human disease." Thus, the new report "explicitly seeks to enable cross-cutting research and development preparedness that is also relevant for…