WHO launches GISAID online database

On May 19, 2008, the WHO Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID) was launched at the 61st WHA as a public online database for influenza data, on the back of Indonesia’s 2007 bird flu and the mainstream media’s attention. [1, 2, 3]  The initial funding to “kickstart the development of GISAID’s EpiFlu™ database application” was provided by US HHS.

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.”