Abstract
Introduction: the limited number of equipped laboratories and the lack of expertise left Africa lagging behind in terms of contribution in genomic data generation. The COVID-19 pandemic has drawn the attention of all public health stakeholders so that it can be used as a marker of the efforts that public health systems can produced. The main purpose of the present analytical study was to evaluate the contribution of the African continent in the genomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2.
Methods: data from the two most popular genomic databases on SARS-CoV-2 (GISAID EpiCov and NCBI Virus) were extracted and analyzed. Comparisons were made using the sequencing ratio which represents the number of genomic sequence published over one thousands confirmed cases.
Results: considering continental blocks, the Africa occupied the fourth place after Oceania, Europe and North America based on sequencing ratios. However, when the considered comparison parameter is the number of sequences, the African continent was the fifth contributor after Europe, North America, Asia and South America.
Conclusion: the study showed that African countries have effectively integrated the genomic data generation in the public health response strategies but the effective use of these data for a perfect surveillance is not clearly established. There is a need for capacity building in genomic data analyses for a better response to public health threats in Africa.
Keywords: Africa; COVID-19; Genomic surveillance; SARS-CoV-2.
【저자키워드】 COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Genomic surveillance, Africa, 【초록키워드】 public health, SARS-CoV-2, Europe, COVID-19 pandemic, Sequencing, Genomic surveillance, database, Laboratory, Asia, Surveillance, African, South America, genomic, GISAID, marker, Analysis, These data, confirmed cases, sequences, genomic data, Comparisons, North America, effort, blocks, NCBI, public health systems, Oceania, parameter, genomic sequence, public health threat, country, effective, public health system, produced, analyzed, lack, evaluate, can be used, 【제목키워드】 public health, Surveillance, epidemiological, genomic data, evaluate, the SARS-CoV-2,