"It's not an exaggeration to say a Disease X event is just around the corner," health professionals have warned the world.

The World Health Organization's director-general has warned that the next pandemic might be "even deadlier" than the COVID-19 epidemic.

The World Health Organisation has warned the world to prepare for a pandemic “even deadlier” than Covid, which left mass burial sites like this in Brazil.

On Monday, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organisation, warned that the COVID-19 epidemic is far from done.

"The threat of another variant emerging that causes new surges of disease and death remains," Tedros warned. "And the threat of another pathogen emerging with even deadlier potential remains."

However, the World Health Organisation just deemed the COVID-19 pandemic no longer a public health emergency.

"When the next pandemic arrives — and it will," he says, "we must be ready to respond decisively, collectively, and equitably."

Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

"We cannot kick this can down the road," Tedros warned in a speech to WHO member countries. "If we do not make the necessary changes, who will?" And if we don't make them now, when will we?

Despite these grim predictions, Tedros praised WHO member states' recent decision to draw a pandemic treaty while also accepting a budget increase, which was agreed after the institution committed to budget and financial changes, according to Reuters.

Tedros also urged for further talks on the International Health Regulations, a treaty establishing health-crisis planning and response, "so the world will never again have to face the devastation of a pandemic like COVID-19."

According to the WHO, the COVID-19 pandemic has killed almost 7 million people globally, including about 1.13 million deaths in the United States and more than 20,000 in Australia.

The WHO has selected "priority" infectious illnesses, which are likely to trigger the next pandemic due to their ability to spread over an area and the lack of, if any, countermeasures.

Ebola, Marburg, Middle East respiratory syndrome, severe acute respiratory syndrome, COVID-19, zika, and — perhaps most terrifyingly — "Disease X" are among these illnesses.

sickness X is the World Health Organisation designation for a sickness caused by an undiscovered pathogen.

"It is not an exaggeration to say that there is the potential for a Disease X event just around the corner," Pranab Chatterjee, a researcher at the Department of International Health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, told the National Post.

Public health specialists think that the next pandemic will most likely be zoonotic, or originating in animals before "spilling over" to infect people. The most recent outbreaks, Ebola, HIV/AIDS, and COVID-19, have all been zoonotic in nature.

International surveillance and communication of emerging disease hazards is "a key approach in our ability to detect a spillover event before it becomes too widespread," according to Chatterjee.