“Disease X” is a description of a hypothetical and unknown pathogen that could cause a new epidemic. World Health Organization (WHO) President Tedros Ghebreyesus dedicated his report at the World Economic Forum in Davos to this threat. As Pavel Volchkov, virologist and head of the MIPT genome engineering laboratory, told socialbites.ca, this disease will most likely be caused by a virus, not a bacterium or fungus.
“It could potentially be a bacteria or a fungus. Even some protozoa can cause it. But if you weigh the possibilities, it will most likely be a virus. First, the virus is much easier to create using synthetic biology. So in this case the role of the man-made component really increases,” said Volchkov.
Secondly, the expert notes that scientists have already learned to create broad-spectrum antibiotics that work against bacteria. Also in some countries, in case of complete antibiotic resistance, a reserve antibiotic is specially reserved, which has never been used and can cope even with superbugs.
“Even our immune system copes very well with fungi. As a rule, superbugs originating from fungi do not exist. And as far as I remember, there have never been cases in human history where a fungal infection caused a pandemic. There were problems, small outbreaks in individual hospitals, but nothing else. Producing a man-made superpathogen from a fungus is also an easy task; after all, a virus is the simplest system in terms of engineering,” explained the virologist.
For more information on which virus is most dangerous today, what the pathogen that causes “Disease X” will look like, and whether viruses dangerous to humanity can be created in laboratories, see: report Volchkova “socialbites.ca”.
Previously virologist Volchkov named The most dangerous virus in the world.