CDC Expands Infectious Disease Surveillance Program Beyond COVID at 4 Major US Airports

The CDC’s Traveler-Based Genomic Surveillance program will test volunteers for more than 30 known pathogens, including flu, RSV, and other respiratory viruses.

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is expanding its infectious disease surveillance program at four major U.S. airports as part of a new pilot program to provide early detection of more than 30 known pathogens, including influenza A and B, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and SARS-CoV-2.

The pilot is part of the agency’s Traveler-based Genomic Surveillance (TGS) program, implemented by biotech companies Ginkgo Bioworks and XpresCheck and will last several months.

TGS, led by the CDC’s Travelers’ Health Branch, is a public–private partnership that began in 2021 by collecting nasal swabs from volunteers during the COVID-19 pandemic to detect new variants early. It has since expanded to provide aircraft testing and wastewater sampling at seven airports nationwide. According to the CDC, the TGS program is a “model of pathogen detection that can be used as an early warning system for the detection of many pathogens beyond SARS-CoV-2.”

“The expansion of the Traveler-based Genomic Surveillance program to flu, RSV, and other pathogens is essential as we head into fall respiratory season. The TGS program, which began during the COVID-19 pandemic, acted as an early warning system to detect new and rare variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and will do the same for other respiratory viruses going forward,” Dr. Cindy Friedman, chief of CDC’s Travelers’ Health Branch, said in a statement.

Nasal samples that test positive will be sequenced and uploaded to public databases to inform public health officials and policymakers. However, the CDC didn’t disclose which public databases will have access to the data.

The wastewater testing program is designed to detect outbreaks and pandemics by monitoring pathogens circulating globally so they can be detected before they spread to communities, according to the CDC. Wastewater surveillance doesn’t require direct involvement from travelers to obtain samples. Instead, wastewater is collected using a custom-made collection device. Samples are then shipped to a laboratory for reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) testing, during which positive samples undergo genome sequencing to detect variants.

The pilot expansion will be introduced at four of the program’s seven international airports, including Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C., Boston Logan International Airport, San Francisco International Airport, and John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, according to CNN.

As of October, more than 370,000 anonymous air travelers have voluntarily enrolled in the program, which covers flights from more than 135 countries from all World Health Organization regions.

According to Ginkgo BioWorks, the program has sequenced more than 14,000 samples since its inception and made genomic data available on “several public health platforms” for further analysis. This will allow the TGS program to increase global surveillance systems to identify “priority pathogens,” especially as COVID-19 monitoring wanes.

“By building sustainable, scalable infrastructure that is capable of detecting biological threats beyond SARS-CoV-2, the TGS program is a global leader in the evolution of biosecurity,” Matt McKnight, general manager for biosecurity at Ginkgo Bioworks, said in a statement. “Persistent monitoring can give officials an early warning by offering a view into how pathogens spread across the globe.”

XpresCheck CEO Ezra Ernst said in the statement: “With air travel exceeding pre-pandemic levels and the ongoing spread of COVID-19 and other viruses, it is crucial that we continue to test. The data that we collect provides crucial insights for public health officials to inform how best to protect our nation from the threat of evolving viruses.”

According to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Ginkgo Bioworks received a $2.3 million grant in October from the foundation, which also funds the CDC, the CDC Foundation, and numerous pharmaceutical companies that have developed or are developing vaccines for various pathogens tested as part of the pilot program.

The Epoch Times contacted the CDC to obtain more details about the expanded pilot program but didn’t receive a response by press time.