MOOD: A project to better detect emerging diseases

Coordinated from Montpellier by CIRAD researcher Renaud Lancelot, the MOOD project has involved 12 countries and 25 partners, including the University of Montpellier, since last January. Its aim is to unify and improve global health monitoring to better combat emerging diseases.

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The project should have been officially announced in Stockholm just a few days ago... if it hadn't turned out to be so highly topical. Faced with the spread of COVID-19 to the four corners of the planet, the importance of a unified and effective global health watch has never seemed so urgent. And this is precisely the mission that the MOOD project has set itself, working to improve epidemic intelligence tools and services.

12 countries and 25 partners

Led by European and North American researchers as part of the European H2020 program, the project is coordinated by CIRAD, an expert in emerging diseases, most of which have an animal origin. It brings together 12 countries and 25 partners, including theECDC (European Center for Disease Control), theWHO (World Health Organization), the FAO (United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization) and the OIE (World Organization for Animal Health).

The arrival of COVID-19 has, of course, greatly intensified exchanges between the members of this consortium and refocused the project on this priority situation. Researchers worked on modeling the virus, asInserm researcher Vittoria Colizza explained on France Inter's "le virus au carré" program on Tuesday March 24.

as Renaud Lancelot, Mood coordinator and CIRAD researcher, points out:

"With the arrival of COVID-19, we're doubling our efforts, while staying on course with the initial program.

An initial program aimed at better detecting certain threats, such as the risk of introducing a new pathogen into Europe, the risk of propagation, or areas favorable to its spread.

Case studies in 5 countries

With a budget of 14 million euros over four years, the researchers have drawn up a multi-stage plan. The first, which is already underway, involves carrying out a case study in five countries with different socio-economic, geographical and climatic conditions. France, Italy, Spain, Finland and Serbia have been selected. Objectives: to analyze existing surveillance methods and epidemic intelligence systems, and to assess new needs with the help of epidemic intelligence players operating in each country.

Currently, two types of sources are used by agents: "official" sources relayed by health agencies, and "unofficial" sources such as Internet forums, online newspaper articles and social networks. While the latter are highly effective in detecting the emergence of new diseases, they also have their limitations, notably the sheer volume of data to be processed. How do you select the relevant information from all this mass? How can we prioritize and interpret it to turn it into elements capable of helping us detect new pathogens? These are the questions our European experts will be tackling.

Tools distributed in Europe and the South

The tools and services devised by MOOD researchers will then be developed and made available to theECDC and the project's partner public health agencies, then disseminated in Europe and beyond, particularly in developing countries, before being shared, at reasonable cost and open source if possible.

This scientific approach is essential at a time when, as current events have brutally demonstrated, population growth, deforestation and climate change, with the resulting animal and human mobility, are greatly increasing the risk of new diseases emerging and accelerating their spread worldwide.