The World Health Organization (WHO), with the support of its Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO), has introduced a groundbreaking global framework to assist Member States in investigating the origins of new and re-emerging pathogens. This marks the first unified and structured approach specifically designed to trace the origins of novel pathogens, bridging a critical gap in the current investigative tools available for infectious disease outbreaks.
The framework provides a comprehensive set of scientific investigations and studies that will be periodically updated based on feedback from users. It aims to enhance the ability to prevent, contain, and swiftly identify the origins of outbreaks involving both known (such as Ebola, Nipah, and Monkeypox) and novel pathogens (including MERS-CoV, SARS-CoV-1, and SARS-CoV-2).
The WHO framework outlines six key technical elements:
- Initial Investigations: Analyzing the first cases or outbreaks to identify exposure sources and collect samples.
- Human Studies: Understanding the pathogen’s epidemiology, clinical features, transmission modes, and earliest presence in surveillance samples.
- Human/Animal Interface Studies: Identifying potential animal reservoirs, intermediate hosts, and reverse zoonoses.
- Vector and Environmental Studies: Exploring potential vectors and environmental presence.
- Genomics and Phylogenetics: Examining genomic characteristics, evolution, and spatial distribution over time.
- Biosafety/Biosecurity Studies: Assessing potential breaches in laboratory or research settings that could be linked to initial cases.
Designed as a resource for scientists, researchers, public health authorities, and investigators, the framework provides guidance on initiating multidisciplinary investigations and offers recommendations on the capacities and tools required, such as human, animal, and environmental surveillance systems, biosafety regulations, and laboratory expertise.
Timely and comprehensive investigations are essential for preventing and containing global health crises. Findings from these studies can halt transmission chains, reduce spillover risks from animals to humans, and rule out potential laboratory breaches in biosafety and biosecurity.
WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus emphasized the importance of understanding the origins of pandemics: “This framework provides for the first time comprehensive guidance on the studies needed to investigate the origins of emerging and reemerging pathogens. If it had been in place when COVID-19 struck, the quest to understand its origins may have been less contentious and more successful.”
SAGO, established in November 2021, consists of independent experts from around the globe and plays a pivotal role in strengthening health emergency preparedness through the development of this framework.
