Nature, 30 August 2006

Boosting access to disease data

EDITORIAL

A new agreement by stakeholders to improve the sharing of flu data should eventually stimulate research on many infectious diseases. Now to make it work.

GISAID's broad endorsement of the goal of prompt sharing from multiple stakeholders, often with conflicting interests, is in itself progress and a tribute to the diplomacy of those involved. Tangible evidence of change has also come from the Indonesian government and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which both announced in August that they would share all flu genomic data;

Agreement on the principles of GISAID is only a beginning, however. Prompt progress in establishing the ground rules for sharing will be essential to build confidence and momentum.  see Nature volume 442, 957 (2006) DOI: 10.1038/442957a

CBD Study finds 'GISAID might provide useful lessons and insight to ABS discussions'

Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity

A peer-reviewed fact-finding and scoping study on digital sequence information on genetic resources in the context of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Nagoya Protocol, highlights key advantages of GISAID’s sharing mechanism and a fair and equitable benefit-sharing resulting from access to data.

With the core principals of timely international sharing of health data for protecting populations against lethal infectious disease outbreaks and adherence to scientific etiquette of acknowledgement of the source of data has resulted in global trust and confidence in GISAID.  see the Monetary and Non-monetary Benefits GISAID meets under the Nagoya Protocol.

GISAID: From vision to reality

Editorial by Yuelong Shu et al

Ten years ago, a correspondence signed by more than 70 championed ‘A global initiative on sharing avian flu data’ leading to the GISAID Initiative in 2008. What started out as an expression of intent to foster international sharing of all influenza virus data and to publish results collaboratively has emerged as an indispensable mechanism for sharing influenza genetic sequence and metadata that embraces the interests and concerns of the wider influenza community, public health and animal health scientists, along with governments around the world. Today GISAID is recognised as an effective and trusted mechanism for rapid sharing of both published and ‘unpublished’ influenza data. Its concept for incentivising data sharing established an alternative to data sharing via conventional public-domain archives. read more

Viruses: Model to accelerate epidemic responses

Correspondence by John W. McCauley

On behalf of the Scientific Advisory Council of the influenza data-sharing initiative GISAID (www.gisaid.org), we suggest that this long-standing and successful programme could be extended to help speed on-the-ground responses to other emergent viral threats. read more

Data, disease and diplomacy: GISAID’s innovative contribution to global health

The Fight Against Bird Flu

Nature Editorial

China’s well-handled response to outbreaks of H7N9 avian influenza belies the country’s bad reputation from its past dealings with disease. But there are still improvements to be made.

China reported the H7N9 outbreak to the World Health Organization (WHO) on 31 March, just six weeks after the first known person fell ill. On the same day, it published the genomic sequences of viruses from the three human cases then identified on the database of the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID). read more

WHO is fully supportive of GISAID

By Keiji Fukuda, Assistant Director General

On the occasion of the GISAID Symposium hosted by the Federal Republic of Germany in Bonn, Dr. Fukuda spoke to the theme Breaking Through Influenza Information Walls.  

"We have the development of critically important and technically advanced new platforms such as GISAID. This data sharing initiative provides an important option for sharing genetic sequence and epidemiological data."

"The hosting of this platform by the Federal Republic of Germany signifies an important level of engagement from a major country and scientific power, and provides all countries with an important component of trust" 

A Right to Access and a Duty to Reciprocity – GISAID sets the paradigm

By Prof. Dr. Winston Hide

It is unique in the global community in that the principles of GISAID address the tensions between developed world research groups and developing world laboratories using the remarkable leveling effect of an internationally accessible repository and analytical engine – – where all who use it must agree upon ethical and collaborative use of the data against a common set of data sharing principles. 

GISAID researchers have a remarkable opportunity to collaborate and exploit the novel data it contains.

Akademie Leopoldina begrüßt die Einrichtung der GISAID Initiative zur Bekämpfung der Vogelgrippe

Endorsement

Die weltweite Verbreitung einer besonders gefährlichen Form des Vogelgrippe-Erregers, der Virusvariante H5N1, hat in den letzten Jahren teilweise dramatische ökonomische Probleme hervorgerufen und darüber hinaus in einigen Entwicklungsländern zu Versorgungsengpässen mit Lebensmitteln geführt.

Zwar ist eine direkte Bedrohung für den Menschen derzeit noch nicht auszumachen, fortlaufende Veränderungen des Virus stellen aber auch ein erhebliches Risiko für den Menschen dar. Daher erscheint es wichtig, das Veränderungspotential des Virus besser zu verstehen und die dazu verfügbaren Daten der internationalen Wissenschaftlergemeinschaft frei zugänglich zu machen.

Diesem Ansatz dient die unabhängige Initiative von Wissenschaftlern, die den weltweiten verantwortlichen Austausch von Daten über den Vogelgrippe-Erreger zum Ziel hat (englisch: Global Initiative on Sharing Avian Influenza Data, GISAID). Zahlreiche betroffene Entwicklungsländer, darunter China und Indonesien haben bereits über GISAID ihre Grippedaten zugänglich gemacht, die auf einer entsprechenden Internetplattform öffentlich und kostenfrei zugänglich sind. Die Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina begrüßt diese Initiative ausdrücklich.

Pandemic influenza: science to policy

Recommendation

Epidemiology and surveillance: 3.2.1 Data sharing

Greater sharing of data would accelerate research on the virus.  We recommend that genetic, antigenic and pathogenic data relating to new avian viruses, especially H5, H7 and H9 subtypes, should be made widely and rapidly available. In a letter to Nature, 70 scientists proposed the creation of a global initiative on sharing avian flu data that would promote the sharing of data via public databases within six months of it being analysed and validated (Bogner et al 2006).

We recommend that the UK government supports the global initiative on sharing avian influenza data and ensures that government and publicly funded laboratories put in place plans to publish all surveillance data.