Can we avoid virus-based pandemics in future? UK develops warning system

The world would have been a different place if the Covid 19-induced pandemic had never taken place. It is important to take note of the evolutionary changes in microorganisms that take place in order to ascertain and prevent a possible high-level medical emergency in the future. The Wellcome Sanger Institute in the UK’s Cambridgeshire is working towards that area where researchers are developing a technology which would help monitor the genetic changes in respiratory viruses, bacteria and fungi as they emerge, UK-based publication The Guardian reported.

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Keeping track of these viruses would create an early warning mechanism prior to new diseases and pandemics. The project, titled the Respiratory Virus and Microbiome Initiative, aims at lowering down the cost of the technology, enhancing its usability and scaling up its capability to provide global surveillance for wide range of viruses, with specific focus on coronavirus, respiratory syncytial virus, previously unknown pathogens and influenza viruses.

The technology will be used to identify all viral, bacterial and fungal species through DNA sequencing technique from a single sample collected from patients’ nose swab. According to project lead Ewan Harrison, three versions of this technology are being tested for it to be able to work in laboratories across the globe.

This technique was earlier used during the Covid-19 pandemic which helped in sequencing 20% of the globe’s Sars-CoV-2, virus responsible for Covid-19, genomes.

Similarly, researchers in the US and Germany are also working in projects based on genome sequencing as the world has realised its efficiency to detect the evolutionary behaviour of pathogens.