This coalition of self-described “virus hunters” has already discovered all sorts of new diseases, from an unusual tick-borne disease in Thailand to the surprise emergence of a sandfly-borne infection in Colombia.
Watch the “known bad guys” and the “new kids”
“The list of things we need to worry about, as we’ve seen with COVID-19, is not static,” says Gavin Cloherty, an infectious disease expert who directs the Abbott Pandemic Defense Coalition network. “We need to be watching closely to see how the bad guys that we already know about evolve, but also to see new ones come along,” he continues.
The coalition, funded by American healthcare and medical device giant Abbott, brings together doctors and researchers from around the world.
By uncovering new threats, the coalition is giving Abbott a head start on designing test kits that are central to responding to the Covid-19 crisis. The support of a major industrial group gives the coalition significant resources to detect, sequence and combat new viruses. “When we find something, we can very quickly produce industrial-level diagnostic tests,” says Gavin Cloherty. “The goal is to contain the outbreak to prevent it.”
13,000 samples sequenced
The coalition has sequenced nearly 13,000 samples since its start in 2021. It discovered an outbreak of Oropouche in Colombia, a virus spread by midges and mosquitoes and rarely observed in that country before.
Phylogenetic work to trace the species’ family tree revealed that it originated in Peru or Ecuador, rather than another hotspot, Brazil. “You see how things are developing,” says Gavin Cloherty, “and that’s important from a public health perspective.
Mysterious “cluster”
More recently, the coalition, in collaboration with Thai doctors, discovered that a mysterious “cluster” of patients in Thailand was caused by a tick-borne virus. “At the time, we didn’t know what virus was causing this syndrome,” says Pakpoom Phoompoung, professor of infectious diseases at Siriraj Hospital in Bangkok.
Testing and sequencing of samples in 2014 revealed that most of the patients had severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (FSTSV), a condition that has been diagnosed about 10 times before in Thailand.
Monitoring such threats is becoming increasingly necessary as climate change expands the scope of infectious diseases around the world.
Warming and diseases
The link between climate change and such diseases is well-established and multifaceted: Warmer temperatures allow vectors such as mosquitoes to establish themselves in new areas, heavier rains create more breeding grounds, and extreme weather conditions force people outdoors, making them more vulnerable to bites.
Human impact on the planet also encourages the spread and evolution of infectious diseases in other ways: the loss of biodiversity forces viruses to evolve to new hosts and can push animals into closer contact with humans.
Phylogenetic analysis of the SFTSV strain from Thailand provides a good insight into these complex interactions. The study showed that the virus evolved from a tick species with a restricted geographical range to the more resistant Asian longhorned tick.
Airline against viruses
This development is largely due to the use of pesticides, which reduce the number of host ticks. Once it evolved, the virus was able to spread further, particularly in Asian long-horned ticks, which can now live on birds, which are also moving further and faster due to climate change. “They’re like an airline,” says Gavin Cloherty.
The signs of climate change are everywhere, from record dengue outbreaks in Latin America and the Caribbean to the spread of West Nile virus in the United States.
The global spread of Covid-19 has been a powerful reminder of the risks associated with infectious diseases, but unfortunately we are quick to forget this lesson, says Gavin Cloherty.
