1970-01-01 02:00:00
The World Health Organization (WHO) launched, this Saturday (20), an international surveillance network to quickly 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 to connect countries and regions, improving sample collection and analysis systems, WHO said.
The network should facilitate the rapid identification and traceability of communicable diseases, as well as the exchange of information and the necessary measures to prevent health catastrophes such as the coronavirus pandemic.
It will be based on genomics, which consists of sequencing the genome of viruses, bacteria and other pathogens and studying their functioning to determine their contagion, dangerousness and spread.
The new network, which will be implemented on the eve of the World Health Assembly, which every year brings together WHO member countries in Geneva, will have a secretariat within the WHO – “Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence” – and will gather information on pandemics and epidemics.
The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the importance of studying the genome of viruses to combat the diseases caused by them.
Although the covid-19 pandemic has encouraged countries to improve their genome sequencing capacity, many continue to lack the necessary capacity to gather and analyze samples, the WHO noted.
The new global network’s mission will be to address these challenges, as it should “give all countries access to genome sequencing of pathogenic agents and analyzes within their public health system,” according to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
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© Agence France-Presse
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