On May 19, 2008, the WHO officially launched the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID) online genetic code database platform at the 61st WHA as a public online database for H5N1 avian influenza viruses data. Avian influenza had been getting attention from 2003, with increasing media attention. [1, 2, 3] The initial funding to kickstart the development of GISAID’s EpiFlu™ database application was provided by US HHS.
The GISAID consortium was formed 2 years earlier on August 24, 2006. The new partnersip was for greater transparency in the sharing H5N1 genetic data amongst more than 70 flu scientist Partnership. [5]
On April 15, 2010 a public-private partnership was made with the German government where they became the “official host of the GISAID platform and EpiFlu™ database”. The goal is to have “free worldwide exchange of genetic and epidemiological data on known and newly discovered influenza viruses”.
Melbourne’s Doherty Institute has members on the GISAID governance bodies.
Around April 2020 Coronaviruses began being surveilled by the newly established GISAID EpiCoV platform, which CSIRO uses to track COVID-19 genomes. [4]
The CSL company Seqirus a vaccine manufacture and a “leading innovator in influenza vaccine technologies and pandemic response solutions, is [also] a contributor to the GISAID public-private partnership.”