EpiGen Project: Preparing Ethiopia for the Next Epidemic

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Written By Guest User

When COVID-19 became a pandemic, it unearthed deep uncertainties surrounding the strength of our social systems and the ways in which we respond to biological threats like viruses and bacteria. In the time since, we’ve shifted our understanding of epidemics and are continually finding more techniques on how we can effectively identify, monitor, and combat highly infectious diseases like COVID, Ebola, and SARS. We are proud to take part in a larger global effort to study, possibly predict, and strategize around the next epidemic.

THE EPIGEN PROJECT

The EpiGen project, led by AIGHD Senior Fellow Prof. Tobias Rinke de Wit and Mount Sinai Researcher Dr. Dawit Wolday, aims to strengthen Ethiopian infectious disease monitoring systems through a variety of innovative and community-involved methods within and beyond the laboratory. The project is built on lofty but achievable goals. These include robust clinical data collection and analysis systems, enhanced local capacity and capability for genomic sequencing, the development of a new digital diagnostic platform which is updated near real-time to help inform public health decision-makers, and to build communities of practice and knowledge exchange within Africa.

The overarching mission of the project is to develop a national genomic-informed surveillance for infectious diseases which will contribute towards disease prevention and control programs within and beyond Ethiopia. Tobias sums up these thoughts neatly below:

“We need strong and resilient health systems that can detect, respond, and eventually prevent infectious disease threats, wherever they occur in the world. EpiGen will contribute to this in Ethiopia.”
— Tobias Rinke de Wit
 

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