MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr De Alwis, Ruklanthi (Rukie) Deputy Director, Centre for Outbreak Preparedness Assistant Professor Emerging Infectious Diseases Programme Duke-NUS Medical School MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: The COVID19 pandemic highlighted both the need for strengthened infectious disease surveillance and the critical importance of pathogen genomics in surveillance. However, prior to the pandemic, the technology used for pathogen genomics (i.e. next generation sequencing) was not widely used for public health and mostly available in high-resource countries. The Asia Pathogen Genomics Initiative (Asia PGI) was set up after the pandemic to enhance regional health security through the strengthening of pathogen genomic surveillance in in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) across Asia. This study, conducted through the Asia PGI, aimed to assess the baseline capacities and gaps in pathogen genomic surveillance in lower-resourced countries in the region. (more…)