Decision Support for Application of Laboratory Platforms in Pandemics

Climate change and other factors like population increase, inhabitance of new areas, deforestation and agricultural expansion and roll back of living environment of species make transmission of viruses in particular from animal to humans and outbreak of pandemics more likely. To respond adequately to such threats arising from pathogens like emerging arboviruses such as the Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever virus or the West Nile virus, mobile one health laboratories with the highest bio-safety level 4 (BSL4) are becoming increasingly important. For the coordination of several mobile laboratories a decision support system is needed. To identify the optimized locations for the operation of these resources, the results on the local incidence of specific pathogens provided by the mobile laboratories needs to be combined with data from different provenience such as modelling of the trend of incidence of pathogens, information provided by international stakeholders such as European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) as well as analysis of data coming from sources such as social media. Based on a set of indicators decision makers can be supported in taking time-critical decisions. Within the project MOBILISE a BSL4 mobile laboratory and decision support system (DSS) is developed, using a set of indicators for assistance in taking time-critical decisions. The DSS extends the relevant system built in the STAMINA project for pandemic management, adopting the One Health approach to balance and optimize the health of people, animals and the environment.