Scientists have warned the world that influenza is most likely to cause a new global pandemic.
According to The Guardian, an international survey has revealed that 57% of the senior disease experts now think that the strain of flu virus will be the cause of the next global outbreak of deadly infectious illness.
Jon Salmanton-Garcia from Cologne University, who carried out the study, said, “Each winter, influenza appears. You could describe these outbreaks as little pandemics. They are more or less controlled because the different strains that cause them are not virulent enough, but that will not necessarily be the case forever.”
He added that long-term research has shown that influenza is constantly evolving and mutating, which is why scientists believe that flu is the world’s greatest pandemic threat.
Salmanton-Garcia furthered, “Influenza remained – by a very large degree, the number one threat in terms of its pandemic potential in the eyes of a large majority of world scientists.”
Meanwhile, the yet-to-be-identified microorganism, dubbed as Disease X is ranked in the list of pathogens most likely to cause another pandemic.
Salmanton-Garcia explained, “These pathogens are characterized by their transmissibility through respiratory droplets and a history of previous epidemic or pandemic outbreaks.”
Moreover, the details of the survey will be presented at the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID) congress in Barcelona.
