No, there isn’t a new disease called ‘Disease X’

Some recent news headlines referencing preparations for “Disease X” have sparked conversation online. 

One viral post claims that British scientists are “developing vaccines” against a “new pandemic” caused by an “unknown ‘Disease X.’” 

Since the headlines and posts began circulating online, Google searches about Disease X have spiked. Some people are searching for its connection to a pandemic and others are looking for information about symptoms, implying that people believe Disease X is a new disease that’s currently spreading. 

THE QUESTION

Is there a new disease called Disease X?

THE SOURCES

• The World Health Organization (WHO)
• Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI)
• Maciej Boni, Ph.D., professor of biology at Penn State University 

THE ANSWER

No, there is not a new disease called Disease X.

WHAT WE FOUND

There is not a new disease called Disease X. 

It is a placeholder name that the World Health Organization (WHO) uses to identify an unknown pathogen, such as a virus, that could have serious global health consequences in the future. 

Disease X was first included in the WHO’s list of priority pathogens in 2018, according to the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI). 

That list outlines diseases and pathogens, including COVID-19, MERS, SARS, Ebola virus disease and Disease X, that are “prioritized for research and development in public health emergency contexts.” 

Disease X “represents the knowledge that a serious international epidemic could be caused by a pathogen currently unknown to cause human disease,” the list says. 

In other words, Disease X is a hypothetical disease that could emerge in the future. It isn’t a new pathogen that’s currently spreading throughout the world. 

“It’s just a description of the unknown that we should try to prepare for as best as we can,”  Maciej Boni, Ph.D., a biology professor and infectious disease expert at Penn State University, told VERIFY.

The WHO addressed misconceptions about Disease X in a 2018 video where epidemiologist Bernadette Murgue, Ph.D., referred to it as a “concept.”

“Let’s say it’s a placeholder to be sure that if we have a new disease…we will have a space to put the disease and to know what we need to put efforts on in terms of research to get drugs and vaccines,” Murgue said. 

Boni also noted that a new disease or pathogen that’s spreading among humans would not receive the name “Disease X.”

“They’re given names according to regular, traditional methods of naming viruses, or bacteria or other types of parasites,” he said. “So when something new emerges, it will not be called Disease X. It will have a real scientific name.”

COVID-19 was the first emergence of Disease X since the designation was established, CEPI says. 

But CEPI, Boni and other scientists say it’s only a matter of time before a new Disease X emerges. That’s why some researchers, including those at the United Kingdom Health Security Agency’s Vaccine Development and Evaluation Centre (VDEC), are preparing for ways to tackle it. 

“Working with national and international partners, VDEC’s skills and resources will enable the development of the vaccines we urgently need to save lives and mitigate the harm from vaccine preventable disease,” the UK Health Security Agency said on Aug. 7. “This includes threats from known and new pathogens, including viruses of pandemic potential.”