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

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: 2, Offtopic) by ilPapa on Tuesday March 13 2018, @06:00AM (8 children)

    by ilPapa (2366) on Tuesday March 13 2018, @06:00AM (#651699) Journal

    The new disease only affects Republican men. It causes them to discard all of their morals, ethics and then to sacrifice their reputations in order to protect the infection, which goes on to spread via online interactions and via bodily fluids, especially urine.

    Fortunately, the infection kills off the host pretty quickly. Very few are expected to survive past 2018.

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  • (Score: 0, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 13 2018, @06:18AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 13 2018, @06:18AM (#651704)

    You're still going on about Trump? Trump Derangement Syndrome much?

    • (Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 13 2018, @07:12AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 13 2018, @07:12AM (#651713)

      If you think Trump is even remotely palateble or business as usual, you're the deranged party here.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 13 2018, @09:01AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 13 2018, @09:01AM (#651741)

        For America he pretty much is, observing remotely American politics have been a farce for a very, very long time. He is merely a culmination of that process.

  • (Score: 0, Troll) by SanityCheck on Tuesday March 13 2018, @08:09AM (1 child)

    by SanityCheck (5190) on Tuesday March 13 2018, @08:09AM (#651724)

    A new disease only affects Soyboys and Feminazis, causing them to have a total mental break with reality. They cannot be reasoned with, because all logical arguments cause their infected brains to short-circuit. When they are finally faced with irrefutable evidence of their failures, their natural response is to scream, lash out violently, or to curl-up in fetal position and cry, as pure emotion overtakes what is left of their faculties.

    Fortunately because the infected have long been on the margins of the society, they can just be ignored.

    • (Score: 2, Insightful) by c0lo on Tuesday March 13 2018, @11:10AM

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday March 13 2018, @11:10AM (#651765) Journal

      Fortunately because the infected have long been on the margins of the society, they can just be ignored.

      The only thing wiser than ^^^^^ that I heard came in the form of a joke.
      Problem: the last carriage of a train shakes too much and is noisier than the ones in front of it. Solution: for the comfort of the passengers, decouple and drop the last carriage.

      --
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
  • (Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 13 2018, @09:07AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 13 2018, @09:07AM (#651744)

    Likely a placeholder for the drug resistant strain of HIV becoming a problem in the Philippines so reassuring for residents of Commiefornia that the state has decriminalised deliberate infection.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 13 2018, @07:56PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 13 2018, @07:56PM (#651964)

    I'd worry equally about Republican women. Feminists tell us that Republican women don't exist though.

    • (Score: 2) by SanityCheck on Thursday March 15 2018, @11:05PM

      by SanityCheck (5190) on Thursday March 15 2018, @11:05PM (#653156)

      Yes, there are only women who voted a certain way because they were pressured by men in their life.