Japan Builds Infectious Disease Data Bank To Fight Pandemic

Research illustration. (Wikimedia Commons/Steve Jurvetson)

JAKARTA - The Japanese government will launch an infectious disease data bank project later this month, starting with plans to collect data on 10.000 COVID-19 patients in March.

One member of the project said that the bank was created to help medical institutions and universities develop treatments in the midst of a pandemic.

Under the project, the government is seeking to pre-collect blood and saliva samples, as well as records of care for COVID-19 patients for use by medical institutions and universities researching respiratory diseases, possibly starting this fall.

About 50 medical institutions are expected to join the project, and the database will be managed by organizations including the National Center for Global Health and Medicine, the National Institute of Infectious Diseases, and the University of Tokyo.

The data bank will first collect samples and treatment data for COVID-19 patients that are already stored in each institution.

It then collects samples as well as data on treatment, severity, vaccination records, and genome analysis of new patients who gave their consent.

It is hoped that the sample and data will show the types of people who are more likely to develop severe COVID-19 symptoms.

Universities and medical institutions in Japan have managed infectious disease data separately, but they face problems such as the limited number of people analyzing the data and not being able to save samples when they are short on research budgets.

"It is imperative for the country to take the lead in the sustainable operation of databases from a national security point of view", said Wataru Sugiura, who heads the Center for Clinical Science at the National Center for Global Health and Medicine, cited from Kyodo News, Wednesday, July 7.

"It is also necessary to nurture people who can conduct research using the data collected", he concluded.