The scientist, who discovered Ebola more than four decades ago, cautioned that mankind faced an uncertain number of new and possibly lethal viruses arising from tropical rainforests in Africa. A woman in a remote town in the Democratic Republic of Congo exhibiting signs of hemorrhagic fever, has already fuelled concerns of new deadly pathogens.
The woman in Ingende was screened for multiple diseases, including Ebola, according to a CNN report, but all of them came out negative.
It sparked concerns that her infection could have been caused by the so-called “Disease X,” a new “unexpected” pathogen that may spread as easily as the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), but has a 50 to 90 per cent fatality rate for Ebola. The patient showing symptoms that looked like Ebola has recovered since then.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed that “Disease X,” where “X” stands for unexpected, is now hypothetical, an epidemic that scientists and public health experts fear could lead to serious illnesses around the world if and when they occur.
We are now in an environment where there will be new pathogens coming out. Professor Jean-Jacques Muyembe Tamfum, who helped discover the Ebola virus in 1976, said this is what constitutes a threat to humanity when speaking to CNN. “When he was asked whether any new illness could be more apocalyptic than Covid-19, he said, “Yes, yes, I think so.
According to CNN, Muyembe has cautioned that many more zoonotic diseases may occur, or those that leap from animals to humans. Covid-19, along with yellow fever and rabies, is believed to have originated from an unknown source or the term used to indicate the natural host of the virus in the animal kingdom.
It is believed that SARS-CoV-2, which causes coronavirus disease, originated in China and, probably, from bats. The spread of zoonotic diseases has been widely attributed by scientists to deforestation that sees the natural ecosystems of animals vanish.
According to Johns Hopkins University’s Covid-19 tracker, coronavirus disease has infected 85 million individuals worldwide, of which 1,843,143 have died. India has 10,340,469 Covid patients, the second worst-hit nation after the United States, and its death toll stands at 149,649.
