Affiliation:
1. COVID‐19 National Reference Laboratory Pasteur Institute of Iran Tehran Iran
2. Department of Influenza and other Respiratory Viruses Pasteur Institute of Iran Tehran Iran
3. Rapid Response Team for Infectious Diseases Pasteur Institute of Iran Tehran Iran
4. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatics, Research Centre for Emerging and Reemerging Infectious Diseases Pasteur Institute of Iran Tehran Iran
5. WHO Collaborating Center for Reference and Research on Rabies Pasteur Institute of Iran Tehran Iran
6. Department of Arboviruses and Viral Hemorrhagic Fevers (National Reference Laboratory) Pasteur Institute of Iran Tehran Iran
Abstract
AbstractStrengthening surveillance systems is a key aspect of outbreak response and was particularly important during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Respiratory pathogens spread rapidly, and laboratory capacity is key to monitoring the spread. Prior to the pandemic, Iran had established a rapid response team and laboratory network to provide identification, monitoring, and detection of emerging infectious diseases, but did not have the laboratory capacity to respond to COVID‐19. Following the announcement of the COVID‐19 pandemic, the rapid response team diverted all attention to supporting COVID‐19 surveillance. Iran built on the existing national laboratory infrastructure to incorporate SARS‐CoV‐2 surveillance into the response network. Based on existing international protocols, in‐house molecular diagnosis capacity was operationalized, and commercial controls and assays were acquired and validated to national standards. The first COVID‐19 laboratory was operational by January 25, less than 4 weeks before the initial detection of SARS‐CoV‐2 was announced. Assays and support were expanded and rolled out to form the COVID‐19 National Laboratory Network, which consists of 560 multi‐sectoral laboratories covering all provinces of Iran. The national laboratory network supports a wide range of operational capacities, including assay validation and protocol development, quality assurance, respiratory pathogen diagnosis and surveillance, and variant identification and assessment using multiple sequencing platforms. This network has supported the testing of over 55 million samples over the past 36 months using RT‐qPCR and has sequenced approximately 2200 samples across the country, contributing the data to international databases, including GISAID.
Subject
Infectious Diseases,Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health,Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine,Epidemiology
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