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World Heath Organization Warns of Unknown or Non-Existent "Disease X"

posted by mrpg on Tuesday March 13 2018, @05:22AM   Printer-friendly
from the x-men-beware dept.

takyon writes:

The World Health Organization Wants You To Worry About "Disease X"

Every year, the World Health Organization commissions an expert committee identify the most threatening infectious diseases of the upcoming year. The idea is to prioritize research and development on diseases and pathogens that pose a major risk to global health, but lack effective treatments or vaccines.

The committee met early in February this year, and the prioritized list of diseases has been released. The list is made up of familiar threats, including Ebola, Zika, Lassa Fever and a respiratory illness in the Middle East known as MERS. And then there's "Disease X." It is the last on the list, and most mysterious.

What is Disease X? Disease X is quite literally a mystery disease. It's a recognition that we can't see everything coming. In 2018, it's entirely possible that we'll see a brand-new pathogen. Or, as with Zika, an old disease will suddenly demonstrate a new way to harm us.

Disease X is a placeholder for disaster we can't imagine yet.

From the WHO list of Blueprint priority diseases:

Disease X represents the knowledge that a serious international epidemic could be caused by a pathogen currently unknown to cause human disease, and so the R&D Blueprint explicitly seeks to enable cross-cutting R&D preparedness that is also relevant for an unknown "Disease X" as far as possible.

Also at The Telegraph.

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 13 2018, @05:28AM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 13 2018, @05:28AM (#651688)

    Dark matter, dark energy, dark gravity, and now dark germs.

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  • (Score: 2) by Fluffeh on Tuesday March 13 2018, @05:35AM

    by Fluffeh (954) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday March 13 2018, @05:35AM (#651691) Journal

    Yeah, while "Expect the unexpected..." works in Scooby Doo cartoons, one would expect better of the World Health Organization and their publications. What's written as the last statement in the pamphlet? "It would have worked too if it wasn't for those pesky doctors!"?

  • (Score: 2) by zocalo on Tuesday March 13 2018, @10:19AM

    by zocalo (302) on Tuesday March 13 2018, @10:19AM (#651753)
    Well, they could hardly expect to be taken seriously by the uneducated masses if they actually called it what we here all know they euphemistically referring to - the viral outbreak that starts the Zombie Apocalypse. I think they could probably have just about got away with calling it "Disease Z" though.
    --
    UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!

  • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 13 2018, @01:10PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 13 2018, @01:10PM (#651797)

    It's all part of the alt-right plan to make you fear the darkie.