THE dreaded Black Death plague had been added to the watchlist of pathogens that could trigger the next pandemic. In its first major shake-up since Covid-19 rocked the globe, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has ramped up its list of nine 'priority pathogens' . Bird flu and mpox are also among some of the new diseases that have been added to the list of 37 looming threats.
It comes just months after the US reported its first death from the bubonic plague - a disease that killed tens of millions of people in medieval Europe - since 2020. Meanwhile, a highly pathogenic bird flu strain, called H5N1 , has been detected in humans in the US. Sparking fears around the globe the virus could adapt to better infect humans , Read more on disease X At the same time, a mutant mpox outbreak in Africa has triggered a public health emergency amid fears it could spread out of control.
There are also fears about the mosquito-borne Dengue fever , often dubbed the 'bone-breaking disease' which is spreading in Europe at unprecedented levels. In the watchlist, named the R&D Blueprint for Epidemics , scientists also added an incurable rat disease called Hantavirus and swine flu. Several bacteria, including water-borne cholera and horror stomach bug salmonella , have also been incorporated for the first time.
Most read in Health More than half of the entries were new compared to the list from 2017, when the list was first published. Among the familiar faces still lurking are Ebola, Marburg , and .