Africa Centers for Disease Control: US$100 million Africa Pathogen Genomics Initiative to boost disease surveillance and emergency response capacity in Africa
“[On Monday], a group of public, private, and non-profit organizations, led by the African Union Commission through the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), launched the Africa Pathogen Genomics Initiative (Africa PGI) in a US$100 million, four-year partnership to expand access to next-generation genomic sequencing tools and expertise designed to strengthen public health surveillance and laboratory networks across Africa. … This new initiative will build a continent-wide disease surveillance and laboratory network based on pathogen genomic sequencing. This network will not only help identify and inform research and public health responses to COVID-19 and other epidemic threats, but also for endemic diseases such as AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, cholera, and other infectious diseases…” (10/12).