MOOD: A project to improve the detection of emerging diseases
Coordinated from Montpellier by Renaud Lancelot, a researcher at CIRAD, the MOOD project has, since last January, brought together 12 countries and 25 partners, including the University of Montpellier. Its goal is to unify and improve global health surveillance in order to better combat emerging diseases.
The project was supposed to be officially announced in Stockholm in the coming days… had it not ultimately been overshadowed by such breaking news. With COVID-19 spreading across the globe, the importance of unified and effective global health surveillance has never seemed more urgent. And that is precisely the mission the MOOD project has set for itself by working to improve epidemic intelligence tools and services.
12 countries and 25 partners
Conducted as part of the European H2020 program by European and North American researchers, this project is coordinated by CIRAD, an expert in emerging diseases, most of which are of animal origin. It brings together 12 countries and 25 partners, includingthe ECDC (European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control),the WHO (World Health Organization), the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations), and the OIE (World Organisation for Animal Health).
The emergence of COVID-19 has, of course, significantly intensified communication among the members of this consortium and refocused the project on this urgent situation. Researchers have thus been working on modeling the virus, asInserm researcher Vittoria Colizza explained on the France Inter program “Le Virus au Carré”on Tuesday, March 24.
as Renaud Lancelot, coordinator of Mood and researcher at CIRAD, points out:
“With the onset of COVID-19, we’re working twice as hard while staying on track with the original plan.”
An initial program aimed at better identifying certain threats, such as the risk of a new pathogen being introduced into Europe, the risk of its spread, and areas conducive to its spread.
Case studies from 5 countries
With a budget of 14 million euros over four years, researchers have developed a multi-phase plan. The first phase, already underway, involves conducting a case study in five countries characterized by different socioeconomic, geographic, and climatic conditions. France, Italy, Spain, Finland, and Serbia were thus selected. Objectives: to analyze existing surveillance methods and epidemic intelligence systems and to assess new needs with the help of epidemic intelligence professionals working in each country.
Currently, public health officials rely on two types of sources: “official” sources disseminated by health agencies and “unofficial” sources such as online forums, online news articles, and social media. While the latter have proven highly effective in detecting the emergence of new diseases, they also have their limitations, particularly the immense volume of data to be processed. How can relevant information be selected from this vast amount of data? How can it be prioritized or interpreted to turn it into information capable of aiding in the detection of new pathogens? These are the questions our European experts will be addressing.
Tools distributed in Europe and the Global South
The tools and services designed by MOOD researchers will then be developed and made available tothe ECDC and the project’s partner public health agencies, and subsequently disseminated throughout Europe and beyond—particularly in the Global South—before being shared at a reasonable cost and, where possible, as open-source software.
This scientific approach is essential at a time when, as current events starkly demonstrate, population growth, deforestation, and climate change—along with the resulting shifts in animal and human mobility—are significantly increasing the risk of new diseases emerging and accelerating their spread worldwide.