SPADA Draft Documents

In addition, obtaining reference materials from disease outbreaks and foreign locations has 137 become increasingly difficult due to geopolitical sensitivities and the length of time involved in 138 establishing Inter Agency Agreements. For example, the delay (more than 6 months in the 2012 139 Ebola outbreak) in obtaining reference materials from two Ebola outbreaks in Africa and testing 140 for assay performance is illustrated in Figure 3. In 2012 outbreak, it took 6 months to identify the 141 gap, since the then-available Bundibugyo assay failed against the outbreak strain and because of 142 the delay in obtaining reference material or whole genome sequence information, an effective 143 redesigned assay could not be developed in a timely manner. In 2014 outbreak, the availability of 144 whole genome sequences within a short time after the identification of the index case (7), 145 allowed in silico evaluation of the existing assay’s efficacy in detecting the new strain. 146

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148 Figure 3. Examples of the timeline for obtaining Ebola reference materials from Africa. Delay in 149 obtaining pathogen reference materials may hamper development of new and or ‘old and 150

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