At a time when the world is still grappling with a health crisis, the threat of another disease deadlier than COVID-19 seems to be looming large.

Professor Jean-Jacques Muyembe Tamfum, the scientist who discovered Ebola nearly 40 years ago, has warned that a host of new and potentially fatal viruses emerging from Africa's tropical rainforests may be affecting humanity in the years to come.

A CNN report quoted Professor Tamfum as saying: "We are now in a world where new pathogens will come out. And that is what constitutes a threat to humanity."

At present, there is the threat of a deadly disease called 'Disease X' affecting humans. This reportedly spreads as fast as the novel coronavirus and is as fatal as the Ebola virus, which could start another pandemic in the days to come.

The fear of a second pandemic started after a woman hailing from the Democratic Republic of the Congo was found suffering from symptoms of a hemorrhagic fever, which could have been caused by an unidentified deadly pathogen.

The report also mentioned a unique case from Ingende, Democratic Republic of Congo, where a patient showing early symptoms of haemorrhagic fever underwent an Ebola test, but the doctors feared that the infected person could be patient zero of 'Disease X', which stands for unexpected when the results showed negative. But the report suggests that the new pathogen could be contagious and can spread as fast as Covid-19 and has a fatality rate between 50-90 percent of Ebola.

The World Health Organization has said that Disease X is still hypothetical but could spiral into a deadly pandemic.

The professor now fears many such zoonotic diseases - those that jump from animals to humans - are to come. Speaking of such incidences that have occurred in the past are Yellow fever, rabies, and Lyme disease, which are among those that are transmitted from animals to humans via insects or rodents and have caused epidemics and pandemics earlier.

Professor Tamfum has said that diseases such as the yellow fever, influenza, rabies, have all began from animal to human transmission, adding such incidences are common and could cause epidemics and pandemics in the future.

In fact, Disease X may also be thriving inside an animal/s at the moment, that are brought to the metropolis by people serving the rich exotic dishes or providing them exotic pets.