Advancing disease genomics beyond COVID-19 and reducing health disparities: what does the future hold for Africa?

The COVID-19 pandemic has ushered in high-throughput sequencing technology as an essential public health tool. Scaling up and operationalizing genomics in Africa is crucial as enhanced capacity for genome sequencing could address key health problems relevant to African populations. High-quality genomics research can be leveraged to improve diagnosis, understand the aetiology of unexplained illnesses, improve surveillance of infectious diseases and inform efficient control and therapeutic methods of known, rare and emerging infectious diseases. Achieving these within Africa requires strong commitment from stakeholders. A roadmap is needed to guide training of scientists, infrastructural development, research funding, international collaboration as well as promote public-private partnerships. Although the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly boosted genomics capacity in Africa, the continent still lags other regions. Here, we highlighted key initiatives in genomics research and efforts to address health challenges facing the diverse and fast-growing populations on the continent. We explore the scalability of genomic tools and techniques to tackle a broader range of infectious diseases in Africa, a continent that desperately requires a boost from genomic science.

The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on invasive fungal infections in Africa: What have we learned?

Invasive fungal infections (IFIs) have been described as diseases of the poor. The mortality rate of the infections is comparable to that of malaria, HIV, and TB, yet the infections remain poorly funded, neglected in research, and policy at all levels of human resources. The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has further worsened the current state of management for IFIs. At the same time, response to COVID-19 has stirred and boosted vaccine production, vaccine substance manufacturing, and building of next-generation sequencing capacity and genomics data sharing network in the continent. Through collaboration and transdisciplinary research effort, these network and technology can be extended to encourage fungal research to address health issues of existing and emerging fungal pathogens.