The re-emergence of polio in the UK is just the latest troubling sign that the world is headed for a "perfect storm" of new and existing viruses raging through the population.
We're living through a "new pandemic era" according to experts, who say the next 'Disease X' could be just around the corner.
Disease X is a placeholder name adopted by the World Health Organisation three years ago, representing a hypothetical, as-yet unknown pathogen that could cause a future epidemic.
Two and a half years since the first outbreak of Covid-19, scientists are bracing for more health disasters due to a number of circumstances that mean virus-borne diseases will only become more common around the world.
This week a national incident was declared in Britain after the UK Health Security Agency repeatedly detected the poliovirus in London sewage works.
The last community outbreak in Britain was in the 1970s and health officials insist the current risk to the population is low - but experts say it's unlikely to be the last time a serious illness thought to have been eradicated makes a comeback.
Bird flu, Lassa fever, Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever and monkeypox have all been detected in the UK this year.
"There's a name for what we're seeing at the moment in the UK and elsewhere, it's called chatter," Prof Mark Woolhouse, a professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the University of Edinburgh, told the Telegraph.
"It's a term anti-terrorist [units] use to describe the small events that might signify something more major on the horizon... infectious diseases work in much the same way."
Population growth across developing nations, particularly in areas in which human settlements have encroached into jungle areas, is just one of a growing list of reasons for what the USA'S Dr Anthony Fauci dubbed a "new pandemic era".
Climate change, disruptions due to the Covid pandemic and an increase in people migrating from places other than Europe are also thought to be contributing factors to the number of new diseases reaching the UK.
"The early 21st century has been a perfect storm for emerging infectious diseases, and everything is pointing towards the likelihood of more and more outbreaks," Prof Woolhouse said.
"All the drivers of outbreaks are in fact getting worse, not better, over time."
Experts say influenza and measles could be among the next diseases to surge in Britain - but the arrival of the next Disease X is "almost impossible to predict", the Telegraph reports.
Amid the current surge parents have been urged to check their children are up to date on their polio vaccinations, which form part of the standard roster of immunisations under the NHS.
