This is not a nefarious prophecy, but something inevitable. Because history teaches us this, unfortunately. In the future there will be a new pandemic even heavier and more aggressive than Covid: the alarm for the so-called “disease X” comes directly from the WHO, the World Health Organization. This is something that may arrive sooner or later, but its in-depth study today could facilitate prevention, in order to prepare flexible and transversal actions to limit its danger. The scenario of apprehension is also confirmed by Ilaria Capua, a world-renowned virologist today at the Johns Hopkins University in Bologna: “Pandemics occur on a regular basis over time. I’m sorry to say it, but it’s not that because we had the Covid one we’re fine for the next two hundred years”, says the expert in an interview with Resto del Carlino.
Disease X: an inevitable new pandemic
So what can we do in the meantime? The virologist underlines the need for a reasoned, aware and studied response also based on the territory, remembering that there is a lot to keep in mind after the Covid-19 experience. The positive behaviors we have become accustomed to during the pandemic years must not be forgotten. “We have understood a lot about how infectious diseases circulate. Of course, I also see that there is a sort of collective amnesia. People, having had such a bad time, no longer want to think about it. But this is not good. The covid virus He’s still here with us.”
It is necessary to reflect on how to approach health in a more conscious and circular way, argues the expert, who directed the One Health Center in Florida, in the United States, for seven years. According to the WHO, another pandemic is inevitable. Pandemics are indeed cyclical. Capua also explains its meaning: “We are part of a system, we are not islands, we are connected to the components that nourish us, such as animals, plants and our health depends on air, water, earth and fire”, she says .
The origin of the new disease
And where could the new pandemic originate from? “In places where there are fewer hygiene standards it is much simpler. We have had several pandemic viruses emerge from Asia: the Asian flu, the Hong Kong flu. HIV came from monkeys. Live animal markets where species that in nature they would never meet and instead they are still in the same cages. These places are real circles of hell.”
Ilaria Capua concludes by stating that the political and healthcare system must worry about not eroding a system that is already suffering. “We must never forget the great sacrifice of the professionals who at that time were in hospital and did not even have masks available, fighting against something that no one could yet identify.”
What we know so far about disease
It is not yet a real disease, but it is already frightening to the WHO, which has included it in the list of infections requiring priority attention. The so-called “disease of healthcare.
The new potential threat joins – so to speak – already known diseases such as Covid, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, Ebola virus disease, Marburg virus disease, Lassa fever, respiratory syndrome Middle East coronavirus (Mers-CoV), severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars), Nipah, Rift Valley fever and Zika.
For now, as virologist Matteo Bassetti is keen to underline, “we are talking about forecasts on which it is right to work. Trying to avoid the mistakes of the past, we need to plan ahead, making an effort to do research and prevention”. In practice, the WHO is a heartfelt warning. “The WHO – continues Bassetti – presents us with a question. If a new virus arrived tomorrow, the world would be ready to face it with a surveillance system, with rapid production of diagnostic tests, effective drugs and vaccines to avoid a massacre?”.