Infectious diseases: WHO launches new global network to better prevent pandemics

The World Health Organization on Saturday (May 20th) launched an international surveillance network to rapidly detect threats posed by emerging infectious diseases such as Covid-19, and share information to prevent pandemics. The International Pathogen Surveillance Network (IPSN) will provide a platform linking countries and regions to improve sample collection and analysis systems, WHO said.

The network should facilitate the rapid identification and traceability of communicable diseases, as well as the sharing of information and measures to prevent health disasters such as the Covid-19 pandemic. It will be based on genomics, which consists of sequencing the genome of viruses, bacteria and other pathogens and studying their functioning in order to determine their contagiousness, dangerousness and mode of dissemination. The data collected will feed into a broader surveillance system to identify infectious diseases in order to intervene to prevent their spread and to develop treatments and vaccines.

An "ambitious" project

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus described the new scheme as "ambitious", stressing that it could play "a vital role for health security". "As has been demonstrated in an obvious way during the Covid-19 pandemic, the world is stronger when it is united to combat common health threats," he said.

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The new network, which will be launched on the eve of the annual World Health Assembly of WHO member countries in Geneva, will have a secretariat within WHO's Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence, a platform dedicated to gathering information on pandemics and epidemics. It will connect experts from around the world in genetics and data analysis from the public, academic and private sectors. "All share a common goal: to detect and respond to the threats posed by diseases before they become epidemics and pandemics and to optimize routine disease surveillance," the WHO said.

The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of studying the genome of viruses to combat the diseases for which they are responsible. Without the rapid sequencing of the genome of SARS CoV-2, the virus responsible for the Covid-19 disease, vaccines could not have been developed as quickly and as effective, notes the WHO. The new, even more contagious variants of the virus could not have been identified so quickly. "Genomics is at the heart of effective preparedness and response to epidemics and pandemics," the WHO stressed, stressing that genetic analysis of pathogens is also crucial for the control of many diseases, from influenza to AIDS.

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While the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted some countries to improve their genome sequencing capabilities, others still lack the capacity to collect and analyze samples, the WHO said. The new global network is expected to address these types of challenges, as it should "give all countries access to pathogen genome sequencing and testing as part of their public health system," according to Tedros.