RFA-GH-23-003, THAI-GER: THAIland Genomic surveillance of Emerging infectious diseases facilitating Rapid response

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Abstract/Project summary: Emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) and re-emerging infectious diseases (REIDs) can spread quickly among immunologically naïve populations, triggering epidemics or pandemics. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is another public health issue responsible for numerous fatalities and economic losses. The government-associated infectious disease laboratories in Thailand are structured in a centralized manner whereby samples are first collected by community hospitals and then transferred to regional and central laboratories for testing and analysis. While this approach is effective in managing seasonal diseases and small epidemics, it can cause delays in detecting and controlling diseases during larger outbreaks. Apart from specific and sensitive laboratory-based tools to manage EIDs, communities need field-deployable, simple technologies which can be used for EID surveillance. Surveillance systems play a critical role in monitoring and predicting outbreaks of infectious diseases. To enhance surveillance capabilities, it is necessary to develop simple but high sensitivity and specificity laboratory tools that can identify EIDs, REIDs and antimicrobial resistance capabilities in both central and local laboratories, including bioinformatic pipelines, microbial genomic databases, and laboratory management systems. The development of genetic analysis platforms will help facilitate the analysis of pathogen genomes, particularly when dealing with a large volume of data. To enhance the ability of government agencies and local communities to detect, monitor, and surveillance EIDs (respiratory viruses, arboviruses, bacterial STIs, and nosocomial bacterial pathogens) and AMR, we propose the development of coordinated, multi-level tools and systems. These tools and systems will facilitate early detection and rapid response to EIDs