Ministry Of Health Reveals Infectious Diseases Through Air Potential Disease X Triggers Pandemic

Head of the Communication and Public Service Bureau of the Ministry of Health, Siti Nadia Tarmizi. (doc BNPB)

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) revealed that various diseases that are transmitted to humans via air have the opportunity to become X disease or disease X which can trigger a pandemic in the future.

"What is usually a global disease is generally transmitted by air, if it is through blood, water can be prevented. But if it is air, it is difficult to prevent it, because it is impossible for the living to stop breathing," said Head of the Communication and Public Service Bureau of the Ministry of Health, Siti Nadia Tarmizi, Wednesday, May 31., confiscated by Antara.

One of the diseases that has the ability to transmit via air is influenza, just as COVID-19 has triggered a global pandemic.

"That's why, always the flu has great potential to become a pandemic. We don't know what the cure is, all flu doesn't have a cure yet, and the most difficult to deal with, the most likely to be vaccinated," he said.

In addition to influenza, Nadia also mentioned several other candidates for X disease that are categorized as zoonosis or transmitted from animals to humans, such as Ebola, Acute Hepatitis, Monkey Pox, and others.

"Like Ebola, it's been a few years that it's been said to be worldwide, but it hasn't been worldwide until now," he said.

The X disease is a term adopted by the World Health Organization (WHO) in February 2018 to create a concise list of disease blueprints representing hypothetic diseases, which are not yet known, but have the potential to cause a pandemic in the future.

WHO has conveyed the possibility of X disease emerging on Monday, May 22, at the 76th World Health Council association in Geneva, Switzerland.

Nadia said the disease X was caused by an unknown pathogen in humans, in the form of viruses, bacteria, or fungi, without known treatment.

The term disease X has been used by WHO since 2018 for unknown diseases. One year later, COVID-19 emerged as a new pandemic.

"Current preparedness is to anticipate the state to be prepared. The problem is we don't know what the cure is and what the trigger is," he said.