By Gom Mirian
The World Health Organisation (WHO) and partners on Saturday disclosed their intention to launch a global network to help protect people from infectious disease threats through the power of pathogen genomics.
The International Pathogen Surveillance Network (IPSN) offers a platform to connect countries and regions, enhancing systems for sample collection and analysis processes, using these data to influence public health decisions, and widely disseminating the information.
Pathogen genomics studies the genetic material of viruses, bacteria, and other disease-causing agents to learn more about how contagious, lethal, and contagious they are. With this data, researchers and public health professionals can detect and monitor diseases to prevent epidemics, respond to them as part of a larger disease monitoring system, and create new medications and vaccines.
The WHO Director General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that the goal of the new network is ambitious, but it can also play a vital role in health security, to give every country access to pathogen genomic sequencing and analytics as part of its public health system.
He said: “As was so clearly demonstrated to us during the COVID-19 pandemic, the world is stronger when it stands together to fight shared health threats.
“COVID-19 highlighted the critical role pathogen genomics plays in responding to pandemic threats. Without the rapid sequencing of the SARS-COV-2 genome, vaccines would not have been as effective, or have been made available so quickly. New, more transmissible variants of the virus would not have been as quickly identified. Genomics lies at the heart of effective epidemic and pandemic preparedness and response, as well as part of the ongoing surveillance of a vast range of diseases, from foodborne diseases and influenza to tuberculosis and HIV.” he said.
According to the president, Rockefeller Foundation, Dr. Rajiv J. Shah: “Global collaboration in pathogen genomic surveillance has been critical as the world fights COVID-19 together. IPSN builds upon this experience by creating a strong platform for partners across sectors and borders to share knowledge, tools, and practices to ensure that pandemic prevention and response is innovative and robust in the future.” said Shah.
Also, the Director, National Genomics and Bioinformatics Center at ANLIS Malbrán, Argentina, Josefina Campos, Argentina are heavily committed to enhancing both their own nation’s and other nations’ pathogen genomics capabilities.
“Diseases do not respect borders: a disease threat in one country is also a threat to others. We look forward to collaborating with IPSN members to achieve our common goal of preventing illness and saving lives.”
