Killer coronavirus is ‘rapidly’ fitting into the Disease X category, World Health Organization expert warns as outbreak infects more than 80,000 worldwide
A virus expert from the World Health Organization said the coronavirus could be the ‘Disease X’ which experts have warned about.
The name is given to a future disease which could break out among humans and wreak havoc across the world.
The coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, has infected around 80,000 people in the two months since it emerged at an animal market in Wuhan, China in December.
It has killed more than 2,000 and is capable of causing severe lung damage and triggering multiple organ failure, mainly among old or sickly patients.
Dr Marion Koopmans, a virologist for the WHO, said: ‘Whether it will be contained or not, this outbreak is rapidly becoming the first true pandemic challenge that fits the disease X category, listed to the WHO’s priority list of diseases for which we need to prepare in our current globalized society.
Experts said the COVID-19 coronavirus (illustrated) could become the next serious global disease outbreak, which has been given the name Disease X until it emerges
‘Initial resemblances with the SARS outbreak in terms of its origin, the disease associated with infection, and the ability to spread are clear.
‘But since 2003, global air travel has increased more than 10-fold, and the efforts needed to try to contain the epidemic are daunting. ‘
Dr Koopmans made the comments in an article in the scientific journal, Cell.