World must prepare for disease X - WHO head

The world must prepare for future unknown diseases. The idea of the so-called disease X is not new - the World Health Organization (WHO) has been using this term since 2018.

This was stated by the head of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in Davos, The Guardian reports.

There are known viruses like MERS, Zika and Ebola, he said. But WHO officials also needed a placeholder for "a disease we don't know about that might occur."

Ghebreyesus assures that the WHO was preparing for the emergence of a virus similar to COVID even before the so-called pandemic of 2020.

"You could even call COVID the first disease X, and it could happen again," he said.

Some say it will cause panic, Ghebreyesus added, but he doesn't think so.

"It is better to anticipate what may happen, because it has happened many times in our history, and prepare for it. We should not meet events unprepared. We can also prepare for some unknown things," said the WHO head.

Such preparation includes an early warning system as well as systems needed when additional medical facilities and manpower are urgently needed.

It will be recalled that earlier in the USA, senators called on Biden to close air connections with China after the increase in the number of respiratory diseases.