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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
National
Maggie O'Neill

What is ‘Disease X’ and why are experts worried?

Getty Images/iStockphoto

Health authorities around the world are still grappling with lessons learned at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and trying to determine the best way to prevent a new one.

Many researchers have started referring to the next agent to cause mass illness around the world as “Disease X”. A 2022 statement from the World Health Organization (WHO), defines the term this way: “Disease X is [used] to indicate an unknown pathogen that could cause a serious international epidemic.”

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