Disease X can arise due to accelerating climate change – causes extinction
CE Noticias Financieras English 24 [CE NoticiasFinancieras (formerly known as Noticias Financieras) is content in English, Portuguese and Spanish, that provides breaking business, financial, and economic news from across the entire Latin American region, and much more, 1/16/24, “Where could "disease X", listed as more dangerous than Covid-19, emerge?, Source – Database: LexisNexis through the University of Michigan, cpsw/bvn sp]
Disease "X": WHO warns it will be 20 times more deadly than Covid-19
•WHO: What exactly is Disease X? It could be more lethal than Covid-19
Since 2018, the World Health Organization has been handling the term "disease X" to refer to a hypothetical disease, which could be even more lethal than Covid-19. This disease is a warning scenario to prepare for a future global pandemic.
Although this disease is not a new pathology, but rather a hypothetical one, the urgency to prepare for future public health challenges is undeniable. However, the question on everyone's mind is: where could this threat, even more dangerous than Covid-19, emerge?
The answer could be found in the icy depths of the Arctic, where permafrost, that millennia-old witness to the Earth's geological history, is vanishing as climate change accelerates its thaw.
This permanently frozen soil, home to microorganisms that have been dormant for millennia, is the focus of growing scientific concern.
Scientists fear that thawing permafrost, driven by global warming, will release previously unknown prehistoric pathogens. Microbes, especially viruses and bacteria, that existed long before Homo sapiens, could emerge from this living fossil and unleash deadly diseases.
Professor of infectious diseases at Umeå University, Sweden, Birgitta Evengård, warns of an "X-factor" lurking deep in the permafrost. Viruses such as anthrax and other prehistoric pathogens could awaken after millennia of dormancy, posing a catastrophic risk to humanity.
With the Arctic warming up to four times faster than the rest of the world in recent decades, the melting of permafrost is accelerating. This phenomenon not only releases lethal viruses, but also increases human exposure to these pathogens, with the potential to trigger new infections globally in the coming decades.
In addition to the risk of extinct diseases such as smallpox, permafrost also releases 1.7 billion tons of carbon and methane, contributing to climate change.
Continued research and global awareness are critical to prevent and mitigate the risks associated with this phenomenon, which could become a breeding ground for "Disease X," a threat that could surpass the ravages of Covid-19. Humanity must be prepared and united in vigilance in the face of this potential global health crisis.