The UK just announced plans to create a continuous metagenomic sequencing system for early detection of new respiratory pathogens. The system is based on point-of-care sequencing of patients showing up with severe respiratory infections, aiming for diagnosis within 6 hours and allowing the NHS to track emerging pathogens of both artificial or natural origin. The NHS plans to roll this out to 10-30 NHS sites, but no concrete timeline has been announced.

The UK will create the world’s first real-time surveillance system to monitor the threat of future pandemics, prevent disease and protect the public.

Plans have been announced to form a new partnership between the government, Genomics England, UK Biobank, NHS England and Oxford Nanopore - a UK-headquartered, world-leading life sciences company.

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It will be used in the expansion of NHS England’s Respiratory Metagenomics programme, being led by Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. It uses samples from patients with severe respiratory infections and rapid genetic testing to match those patients with the right treatments within 6 hours.

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Following an initial successful pilot at St Thomas’ Hospital, the technology will now be rolled out from 10 to up to 30 NHS sites to address the current time lag between new pathogens emerging in the UK and action being taken to both treat affected patients and to prevent their spread, which will benefit people everywhere.