Disease X: The truth behind this mystery malady revealed, does it really exist?

‘Disease X’ has been popping up left, right and centre, but there is a whole lot of confusion around what it really is. In a nutshell, this is a term that scientists are using for an unknown, future disease that could be the next virus to jump from other animals to humans and potentially cause another pandemic.

Why are people scared?

The term ‘Disease X’ was trending yesterday (August 8) on, confusingly, the platform X, formerly known as Twitter. Users were concerned that we could be faced with another Covid-level public health scare. Part of the pandemic panic may have come from a UKHSA press release that explained scientists are ‘preparing to tackle "disease X"’, suggesting that this is a scary new malady that is already circulating among us.

So ‘Disease X’ doesn’t exist?

It’s not that it doesn’t exist, but that it doesn’t exist yet. Scientists are preparing for an unknown disease and are developing vaccines to battle potential new health threats. It is really about insurance, because no one wants another pandemic, lockdown or shortage of essential items.

Read more: Covid-19: As Eris variant is on the rise, doctors reveal the main symptoms to watch for

Who is working on a cure?

A team of over 200 scientists is working on developing vaccines at Porton Down, one of Britain’s highest security centres of scientific research. This centre is based in the new Vaccine Development and Evaluation Centre in Wiltshire. As an announcement from the UKHSA explained:

Working with national and international partners, VDEC’s skills and resources will enable the development of the vaccines we urgently need to save lives and mitigate the harm from vaccine preventable disease. This includes threats from known and new pathogens, including viruses of pandemic potential.

What other diseases are they concerned about?

Sky News visited the centre and reported on August 7 that as well as Covid-19 variants, the VDEC scientists are also researching several high-risk pathogens like bird flu, monkeypox and hantavirus, a disease spread by rodents which can cause fluid build-up in the lungs, making it difficult to breathe.

They have also developed the first vaccine against Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever, which is spread by ticks and has a fatality rate of 30%. 24 volunteers have signed up to get this jab in the first round of clinical trials.

Numbers of people contracting this disease are on the increase as global temperatures continue to rise and travellers return to the UK unknowingly carrying the infection.

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Sources used:

Sky News: 'Disease X': UK scientists begin developing vaccines against new pandemic

Forbes: What Is Disease X? U.K. Establishes VDEC, New Vaccine Research Center

BBC:Porton Down: Can this laboratory help stop the next pandemic?

GOV.UK: UKHSA unveils VDEC in ‘step change’ for UK’s growing vaccine capabilities