WHO launches global network to detect infectious disease threat

• The World Health Organization has launched a global network to help swiftly detect the threat from infectious diseases, like COVID-19, and share the information to prevent their spread.

International Pathogen Surveillance Network (IPSN)

• The International Pathogen Surveillance Network (IPSN) is a global network of pathogen genomic actors.
• It is hosted by the WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence.
• Its aim isto accelerate progress on the deployment of pathogen genomics and improve public health decision-making.
• By strengthening the pathogen genomic surveillance ecosystem, the IPSN enables faster detection of new pathogens and the enhanced tracking of the spread and evolution of diseases.
  • This in turn can drive better public health responses.
• The IPSN supports ongoing disease surveillance and will help detect and fully characterize new disease threats before they become epidemics or pandemics.

What is the Vision/Mission Behind IPSN?

• A world where every country has equitable access to sustained capacity for genomic sequencing and analytics as part of its public health surveillance system.

Areas of Work for IPSN

• Communities of practice to solve common challenges –
  • At the heart of the IPSN’s work is a set of communities of practice that enable exchange between partners working on pathogen genomics.
  • The first of these is the IPSN Community of Practice on genomics data.
  • Its projects and deliverables aim to harmonize data standards and protocols, ensure genomics data tools are fit for purpose, and that data and benefits sharing are enhanced.
• Country scale-up accelerator to align efforts and enable South-South exchange –
  • The IPSN has established a Country Scale-Up Accelerator (CSUA) to accelerate and amplify the efforts of IPSN members to rapidly increase country capacity for pathogen genomic surveillance.
  • The CSUA’s projects and deliverables aim to create a set of capacity-building tools as global goods, and to empower increased South-South bilateral and subregional partnerships for capacity development.
• Funding to improve equity and to power IPSN projects –
  • To ensure improved coordination and harmonization of donor efforts, the IPSN has established a funders forum.
  • The forum which works with the Secretariat to support IPSN activities and members including a small grants fund.
• High-level advocacy/communications to keep genomic surveillance on the agenda –
  • With active engagement of countries, partners, regional organizations and WHO, the IPSN keeps pathogen genomic surveillance on the global agenda and ensures strategic buy-in.
• Global partners forum for pathogen genomics to bring partners together –
  • The annual forum brings together key players from all IPSN entities involved in pathogen genomic surveillance.
  • The forum will help in providing a high-profile stage to build partnerships, introduce innovations, socialize ideas and advocate for political and financial commitments.

Outcomes of IPSN

• To build towards a strong disease surveillance system, IPSN members and their work will result in:
  • Stronger national and international surveillance systems better able to detect and characterize new threats and reduce endemic burdens;
  • Increased harmonization and innovation in pathogen genomics;
  • Increased scale and efficiency of country capacity building efforts; and
  • Increased political attention and financing efficiency.