Global health initiative lauded
THE Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID), which contributes to global health security with its data-sharing programme used to combat influenza, has gone from strength to strength as it celebrates a decade of enabling near real-time surveillance to respond to and mitigate seasonal and pandemic influenza, says GISAID trustee Dr Iqbal Survé.
GISAID, established in 2008, has been hailed “one the most successful global collaborations ever achieved” by luminaries such as Dr Robert Webster, the foremost expert on bird flu.
It comprises more than 8 000 scientists and over 1 000 institutions worldwide.
“It was started by a German family to look at how to assist, in particular, government to have information relating to viruses. It was was meant to assist with the avian flu virus and recently the ebola virus.
“I am very happy it has grown and become such a valuable resource for developing countries. Under the leadership of Peter Bogner, it has been going from strength to strength,” Survé
said yesterday.
“The 10th anniversary of GISAID represents a landmark in global solidarity,” said Professor Lawrence Gostin, of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Collaborating Centre on National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University.
“A pandemic strain of influenza is perhaps the world’s greatest threat. Everything GISAID stands for – virus-sharing, cutting-edge research, open access and international co-operation to guarantee health security – couldn’t be more important.
“The GISAID’s unique sharing mechanism allows public health officials, scientists and industry to determine how the viruses have mutated and what specific interventions are needed.
“In 2013, when a new, lethal avian flu strain appeared in China, its authorities relied on GISAID to share genetic data of the virus, receiving accolades for its well-handled response to the outbreak.”
To mark the occasion, global public health experts and leading researchers will emphasise the contributions of GISAID, while government officials from countries such as China and Brazil will recognise its importance at the 2018 World Health Assembly in Switzerland this week.
GISAID was formed when the paths of then US secretary of homeland security Michael Chertoff and an ex-senior studio executive at Time Warner, Peter Bogner, crossed paths at the 2006 World Economic Forum.
To learn more about GISAID’s history, mission and goals, visit www.GISAID.org