A Stellenbosch University laboratory is collaborating with one in Britain to keep the focus on genomic surveillance globally as the Covid-19 emergency recedes.
Both were at the forefront of tracking new coronavirus variants during the pandemic and are worried governments and funders may pull back from such surveillance, despite its potential to monitor many infectious diseases better, from malaria to cholera, reports Reuters.
“A major benefit from the pandemic was this huge global investment in infrastructure,” said John Sillitoe, director of the Genomic Surveillance Unit (GSU) at the Wellcome Sanger Institute in Cambridge, which is partnering with Stellenbosch.
In genomic surveillance, scientists first get data about the genetic material of a virus or organism in a process called sequencing. Then they analyse the data from several samples to look for similarities and differences between them, for example to track how the virus is changing or spreading.
The decades-old process came to the forefront as scientists and public health teams tracked the fast-changing coronavirus.
But Sillitoe said he feared assets needed for the process – like sequencing machines bought in the pandemic – were now “sitting idle” in some countries, which would be a missed opportunity.
“We have a lot of blind spots, both on pathogens and on regions,” said Tulio de Oliveira, director of the Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation at Stellenbosch University, whose team, during Covid, had confirmed the discovery of the Beta and Omicron variants.
De Oliveira, who will also join the GSU as a deputy director, said the potential for other diseases was huge.
For instance, work by the two labs, as well as a global climate-related disease consortium, has doubled the number of sequences available for dengue, chikungunya and malaria-carrying mosquitoes in the past year, he said.
The labs will work together to share resources as well as support partners in disease surveillance globally with expertise and materials, alongside wider WHO efforts.
Reuters article – Covid and beyond: labs unite to boost genomic surveillance globally (Open access)
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