Lessons from the past to tackle Disease X

OF late, the media has been abuzz with reports about “Disease X”, including “Disease X: Health agencies worldwide on guard for hypothetical next pandemic” (The Star, Sept 26).

Disease X is a term adopted by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in February 2018 to represent a hypothetical, unknown pathogen that could cause a future epidemic. It has been said that Covid-19 met the standards to be considered as the first Disease X.