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Review
. 2024 Jul 19;86(10):5914-5921.
doi: 10.1097/MS9.0000000000002391. eCollection 2024 Oct.

Disease X and COVID-19: turning lessons from India and the world into policy recommendations

Mainak Bardhan  1   2 , Ishita Ray  3 , Shubhajeet Roy  4 , Priyanka Roy  5 , Priya Thanneeru  6 , Anu Radha Twayana  7 , Sakshi Prasad  8 , Mayukh Bardhan  9 , Ayush Anand  2
Affiliations
Review

Disease X and COVID-19: turning lessons from India and the world into policy recommendations

Mainak Bardhan et al. Ann Med Surg (Lond). .

Abstract

Disease X is caused by pathogen X, an unknown infectious agent that can potentially trigger an epidemic or pandemic. Pathogen X might be any pathogen, including bacteria, viruses, parasites, fungi, and prions. WHO uses the term 'Disease X' for any new emerging disease caused by an unknown pathogen X. Disease X stands for any possible future pandemic in WHO's shortlist of high-priority diseases. This review looks at the manifestations of the recent COVID-19 epidemic as the first Disease X to evaluate what has happened and to learn from what went wrong in India and worldwide. To this end, a summary is presented of response measures by governments, often lacking flows of information, discrepancies in the views of experts and decisions of policymakers, and undesirable variations in individual and collective behavior and their consequences. The elements of combating Disease X in a world with considerable inequalities in relevant knowledge, expertise, information, quality of governance, and financial possibilities are discussed. Based on this, recommendations are given for an innovative global pandemic preparedness system.

Keywords: COVID-19; Disease X; SARS-CoV-2; zoonotic diseases.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Pathogen Pyramid Model to understand the origin of zoonotic diseases in humans. MERS Co-V, middle eastern respiratory syndrome coronavirus; SARS, severe acute respiratory syndrome.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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