Advancing pathogen genomics for public health: First of its kind regional workshop held in Bangkok

The main goal of the event was to advance the adoption of pathogen genomics for public health surveillance in the Asian region. Currently, only 54% of countries have national strategic plans for genomic surveillance, emphasising the need for sustainable, resource-efficient strategies.

“The collaborative efforts with public health and academic partners are key to advance pathogen genomics, allowing us to better prevent, detect, and respond to infectious disease threats,” said Dr Justin Lee, Global Health Center at the U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US CDC). “Building upon the lessons learned from our COVID-19 response, we aim to continue fostering innovation and capacity in genomics for public health resilience across regions.”

The workshop provided hands-on training and in-depth discussions on the systems approach to developing genomic surveillance strategies. Participants were introduced to a suite of tools essential for building national investment cases for pathogen genomics—such as genomic sequencing capacity assessments and pathogen prioritisation—necessary for implementing national genomics plans. Six case studies led by partners allowed countries to learn from each other and evaluate the utility of genomics in public health. Participants were actively engaging in rich discussions, sharing their knowledge and experience with others, which was a key objective for the workshop.

Dr Ranjan Raj Bhatta, Director of the National Public Health Laboratory of Nepal concluded, “The hands-on training in developing national genomic strategies and the shared experiences through case studies really opened our eyes to the practical applications of these tools in our countries. The discussions on investment cases and pathogen prioritisation were especially useful as we work towards building a more resilient genomic surveillance system.”

WHO experts presented global and regional frameworks to assist countries in national planning, touching on essential aspects like multi-source collaborative surveillance. Additionally, a pathogen prioritisation tool was piloted to gather feedback for future enhancements.

As a next step, the workshop partners committed to aligning tools and frameworks and developing a regional training roster, a learning management system, and a cost catalogue for next-generation sequencing equipment. These initiatives will be further discussed at the IPSN Global Partners Forum in November 2024, with the aim of continuing to strengthen pathogen genomics capabilities across the region.

The event was made possible by the Thailand Applied Science Hub (ASH) under the US CDC Thailand branch. Under the banner of the Asia Pathogen Genomics Initiative (Asia PGI), the Duke-NUS Centre for Outbreak Preparedness co-organised the event alongside the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Centre for Pathogen Genomics at the University of Melbourne, the Sydney Infectious Diseases Institute and  Centre of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology at the University of Sydney, and WHO representatives including the International Pathogen Surveillance Network (IPSN) and the WHO South-East Asia and Western Pacific Regional Offices.