Avian flu alert raises risk of pandemic, UKHSA warns

According to Richard Pebody, Director of Infectious Diseases at the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), the agency where the initial case of H5N1 avian influenza in a sheep was documented, the H5N1 avian influenza virus possesses the capacity to initiate a global health crisis analogous to the COVID-19 pandemic. The observed species transmission of avian influenza has led UK virologists to collaborate extensively with animal health specialists to safeguard human health. The UKHSA has incorporated avian influenza into its compendium of 24 virulent viruses that could precipitate the next ‘Disease X,’ a designation also employed by the WHO to characterize a potential disease capable of generating a pandemic after COVID-19. The compendium also encompasses a particularly virulent strain of measles, the extensive picornavirus family (viruses capable of inducing polio-like illnesses), viruses belonging to the Paramyxoviridae family (responsible for mumps and certain respiratory tract infections, such as Nipah virus), and coronaviruses, including the one responsible for MERS-CoV, in addition to the escalating challenge presented by antibiotic resistance.