Have outbreaks of the World Health Organisation’s Disease X been identified?

Rodney P Jones*, PhD

Received: March 12, 2019;   Published: March 20, 2019

DOI: 10.32474/OAJBEB.2019.03.000160

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Abstract

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has recently highlighted the possibility of a curious Disease X with potential to cause an international public health emergency. This research update details the progress to-date at identifying potential outbreaks of Disease X. During these outbreaks’ medical admissions and deaths, but not surgical, increase for an approximate 12-month duration, before reverting to the baseline level. These outbreaks appear to initiate most commonly in the interval from the end of winter to the end of spring. A range of medical admissions increase which seemingly have a common immune function linkage, possibly related to certain types of inflammatory response. Research on alternative immune steady states presents a possible basis for this on/off switching of population health. As the WHO have noted, urgent research is required to further document these alarming disease outbreaks, which have eluded traditional disease surveillance methodologies.

Keywords: Disease X; On/Off Switching; Immune Function; Deaths; Medical Admissions; Nearness to Death Effect

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