Geneva: The World Health Organization (WHO) has launched a global network to help protect people from infectious diseases, such as COVID-19, and exchange information for epidemic prevention.
"The International Pathogen Surveillance Network (IPSN) will provide a platform to connect countries and regions, improving systems for collecting and analyzing samples..." the organization said in a statement Sunday.
The IPSN's common goal is to detect and respond to disease threats before they become epidemics and pandemics, and to optimize routine disease surveillance, WHO stressed.
IPSN will use pathogen genomics to analyze the genetic code of viruses, bacteria, and other disease-causing organisms to understand how infectious they are, how deadly they are, and how they spread.
With this information, scientists and public health officials can identify and track diseases to prevent and respond to outbreaks as part of a broader disease surveillance system, and to develop treatments and vaccines.
