US expands testing of international air travellers to cover 30 respiratory viruses

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has launched a new pilot programme that will expand the early detection system to screen international air travellers for more than 30 respiratory viruses.1More than a billion people enter US airports every year and are an important population to consider when tracking new and emerging infectious diseases, said the agency.2The voluntary and anonymous Traveler-based Genomic Surveillance (TGS) programme has been used to screen international air travellers at seven US airports as an early warning system for new variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and other pathogens. It began during the covid-19 pandemic, when it provided early detection of covid-19 at San Francisco airport.More than 370 000 travellers are currently enrolled in the programme, and about 6000 travellers arriving on flights from more than 135 countries are tested each week. “The key to it all is that the traveller really provides us with…
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