WHO launches International Pathogen Surveillance Network

Editor's Note

The World Health Organization (WHO) and its partners, on May 20, launched the International Pathogen Surveillance Network (IPSN) to prevent and detect infectious disease threats before they become epidemics or pandemics.

The network provides a platform for helping countries and regions improve systems for collecting and analyzing samples, using the data for public health decision-making, and sharing information more broadly 

IPSN will use pathogen genomics to analyze the genetic code of viruses, bacteria, and other disease-causing organisms to understand how they spread and how infectious and deadly they may be.

“As was so clearly demonstrated to us during the COVID-19 pandemic, the world is stronger when it stands together to fight shared health threats,” WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says.