the Synapse selection

A selection of interesting news and articles

It seems I’ve hit a bit of a brick wall this week with the writing. So instead of skipping a week (which would be bad form), I’ve decided to do a short round-up of news and interesting articles I came across over the past few weeks. The pieces will be selected thematically (I say this like I have a system, but I don’t) ad this week it will be on infectious disease outbreaks.

Most of the world might be ready to turn the page on the pandemic but the virus constantly reminds us that it’s still around. The latest incarnation of the Omicron variant, XBB.1.16 is now officially classified as a ‘variant of interest’ by the WHO. This subvariant has been recorded as the predominant strain in India and several countries in South East Asia. Early signals do not show they are more pathogenic but as always, it serves as a reminder that new variants or subvariants and their surges in infections are just around the corner.

Covid-19 is not the only infectious disease around and in February, Cambodia recorded two cases of the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) H5N1. Tragically, an 11-year-old girl succumbed to the infection but her father, the second patient, survived. Thankfully, there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission. Zoonotic spillovers from wild animals are in focus now due to SARS-CoV-2 but a jump of H5N1 from poultry has been a risk for years and more needs to be done for surveillance, detection and prevention.

Three days ago, WHO inaugurated the next step in its mRNA Technology Transfer Programme with the launch of the mRNA technology Hub facility at Afrigen, Cape Town. It is an end-to-end mRNA vaccine development and production facility, and a Covid-19 vaccine candidate is already being scaled up at this facility. Considering all the debate and sensitivities around patents and technology transfer, this is a rather remarkable achievement.

But genomic data needs to be analysed before a vaccine can be developed. GISAID, the international genomic sequence database, propelled to stardom during the pandemic, unfortunately, came under fire several weeks ago. The issue in question was about genomic data on the already contentious origins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and how researchers analysed them. Further to this, a really bizarre story came out just days ago on a supposedly fictional persona at GISAID. The plot thickens. Read the article, it’s a wild ride.

I have colleagues at GISAID and I hope the database comes out relatively unscathed. GISAID is still a really useful tool and database. A lot of good work came out of it, but systemic issues like transparency and good governance are crucial for such a delicate platform to operate.

Lastly, our outbreak preparedness efforts often revolve around the pathogen, known or unknown. But rarely about the people most affected by it. This piece is a great read and to prepare for the next pandemic, we need to look inward at our healthcare systems, our social systems. The systems of people.

Hope this selection of news and articles was interesting enough. Promise to get back to my usual pieces in the next one.

Let me know what you think and how often would you like curated news pieces and articles to come into your inbox. I am still undecided about the frequency of this format, so I welcome any feedback. And as always, please subscribe if you haven’t and share this newsletter if you think someone might like it.