Genomic surveillance can prevent future pandemics: Experts

By Busra Nur Cakmak

ANKARA (AA) - Genomic surveillance can prevent future pandemics and help the world better prepare for future public health threats, World Health Organization (WHO) Europe region experts said.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency after Türkiye uploaded the 100,000th SARS-CoV-2 whole-genome sequence to the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID) platform last week, Adrienne Rashford, project coordinator of Strengthening National Capacities Against COVID-19, said the first genome sequence from Türkiye was uploaded to GISAID in March 2020, “which really indicates just how much capacity has been developed very, very quickly in this country.”

The Turkish Health Ministry and WHO Türkiye Country Office collaborated on the Strengthening National Capacities Against COVID-19 project funded by the European Union in January 2021.

As part of the project, the National Virology Reference Laboratory of the ministry’s Public Health Directorate was equipped with an additional next-generation sequencing instrument to detect SARS-CoV-2 and identify the variants during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“As this project develops and the COVID-19 pandemic slowly decreases, what we're looking at now is how do we harness this amazing capacity that the virology reference laboratory has in order to apply it to all high threat pathogens?” said Rashford.

“We're now working with all of the reference laboratories in order to develop a genomic surveillance strategy of using genome sequencing for all of the different areas such as antimicrobial resistance such as HIV, TB, other high threat pathogens, in order to utilize this amazing capacity for the benefit of public health in Türkiye,” she added.

One of the benefits of genome sequencing besides its use for detecting variants and in antimicrobial resistance is that it can be used to identify unknown pathogens, said Rashford.

“So, if there is an outbreak of something that's unknown, by sequencing the pathogen that's causing it, we'll be able to identify exactly what it is,” she said.

“By rapidly being able to identify an unknown pathogen, it means that we can understand better the epidemiology, how it spreads. We can also identify if it has any resistance to any known drugs that could be used to cure it,” she added.

Rashford said that this can also enable the development of vaccines so much faster than before.

“And the faster we can act in a major emergency, the more likely it is that an epidemic doesn't become a pandemic.”

Biran Musul, Technical Laboratory Officer WHO Country Office for Türkiye​​​​​​​, said that “with the genomic surveillance strategy that we are developing together with the Ministry of Health, what we are trying to achieve is for being better prepared for future public health emergencies or epidemics or pandemics.”

“Türkiye is one of the few countries which uploaded monkeypox sequences as well. The capacity in the national biology laboratory can be used for other pathogens, and this is a good example,” he added.

- ‘Türkiye is regional leader’

Rashford said that Türkiye’s national laboratory receives regular visits from countries that want to develop this technology for their countries.

“Türkiye is a regional leader. Many countries in Central Asia, for example, come to the laboratory to learn how to do genomic sequencing,” said Rashford, adding: “We've recently run a training program on next generation sequencing, molecular epidemiology and bioinformatics with representatives from five Central Asian countries to assist them with developing this technology in their own countries.”

In terms of the number of sequences that have been uploaded to GISAID, Türkiye comes 19th out of 294 countries. In terms of the WHO European region that covers 53 countries, Türkiye is 13th. In terms of how quickly the sequence data comes from the patient into that global database, Türkiye is sixth in the world and third in the European region, Rashford said.