Context

Recently, the World Health Organization (WHO) has launched a global network of laboratories called CoViNet to identify and monitor potentially novel coronaviruses that could emerge shortly. 

About CoViNet

• CoViNet is a network of global laboratories with expertise in human, animal and environmental coronavirus surveillance.
• Thriving Network: CoViNet comprises 36 laboratories from 21 countries in all six WHO regions (Africa, Americas, South-east Asia, Europe, Eastern Mediterranean and Western Pacific), including three Indian laboratories. 
  • Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute
  • The Indian Council of Medical Research-National Institute of Virology in Pune
  • The Translational Health Science and Technology Institute

COVID-19 and ‘Disease X’

• First ‘Disease X’: As per experts, COVID-19 was the first ‘Disease X’ and it may happen again.
  • Coronaviruses are a large family of RNA viruses. 
• ‘Disease X’: It is a placeholder for an unknown disease anticipated by the WHO to be of unprecedented magnitude. It is mostly likely to be a zoonotic disease with a ribonucleic acid (RNA) virus. 
  • Zoonotic diseases are infections that are spread between people and animals.
    • Disease X represents an unidentified virus that scientists warn could be 20 times more lethal than Covid-19.