New iSeq 100 sequencer to boost the country’s pathogen genomic surveillance |11 March 2022
The handover ceremony: (l to r) Dr Tembo, Dr Gedeon and Dr Tessema (Photo: Joena Meme)
The World Health Organisation, through its regional office for Africa and its partners, remains committed to supporting member countries in scaling up genomic surveillance, including sequencing and integrating sequencing data into public health surveillance systems for decision-making.
This was said yesterday by the WHO representative for Seychelles Dr Susan Tembo during a handover ceremony where the Ministry of Health received a sequencer from the Africa (Centre for Disease Control) CDC.
It was public health commissioner Dr Jude Gedeon who accepted the donation from Dr Sofonias Tessema, programme leader of Pathogen Genomics, Africa CDC.
The ceremony, held at the auditorium of the Sheikh Khalifa diagnostic centre, was attended by the head of the Seychelles Public Health Laboratory (SPHL) Dr Leon Biscornet, head of the infectious diseases surveillance unit of the SPHL Brigitte Pool, representatives of the WHO and CDC.
The iSeq 100 sequencer offers flexibility to transition easily between multiple DNA and RNA sequencing applications, including small genome sequencing, targeted gene sequencing, and gene expression profiling.
It is also compatible with the fastest library preparation workflows available.
It will boost the SPHL’s visionary preparedness to develop confirmatory diagnostic capacity for priority and epidemic prone diseases of public health importance.
Dr Tembo said pathogen genomic surveillance is a fundamental tool in public health which can be used, not only for tracking variants, but also for investigations of outbreaks to better understand the transmission, validate diagnostics and develop therapeutics.
She noted that to better enforce this, the WHO and the Africa CDC launched a network of laboratories to reinforce genome sequencing of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes Covid-19, in Africa.
For the networking, the SPHL sequenced its samples in collaboration with the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI).
To conclude, Dr Tembo reaffirmed the WHO’s continuous support in building capacity in genomic sequencing through technical assistance to the Ministry of Health to strengthen the country’s genomic surveillance capacity, including genomic sequencing for other pathogens of global public health significance.
Other than the iSeq 100 sequencer, a group of Africa CDC experts are already in the country, providing a two-week onsite technical support to oversee the installation and testing of the iSeq100 sequencer, provide training to laboratory personnel on the SARS-CoV-2 genome sequencing, bioinformatics analysis, data interpretation, reporting and sharing, and to ensure that the pathogen genomics capacity is initiated.
The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) is a specialised technical institution of the African Union established to support public health initiatives of member states and strengthen the capacity of their public health institutions to detect, prevent, control and respond quickly and effectively to disease threats.
Africa CDC supports African Union member states in providing coordinated and integrated solutions to the inadequacies in their public health infrastructure, human resource capacity, disease surveillance, laboratory diagnostics, and preparedness and response to health emergencies and disasters.
Established in January 2016 by the 26th Ordinary Assembly of Heads of State and Government and officially launched in January 2017, Africa CDC is guided by the principles of leadership, credibility, ownership, delegated authority, timely dissemination of information, and transparency in carrying out its day-to-day activities. The institution serves as a platform for member states to share and exchange knowledge and lessons from public health interventions.
Roland Duval
