Metagenomic Sequencing in Acute Febrile Illness in Cambodia: Genomic Characterization of Endemic and Emerging Pathogens

Date:

17 April 2025, Thursday

Time:

11:00am – 1200pm Singapore

Venue:

Seminar Room 2 (MD1-08-03e), Tahir Foundation Building, National University Of Singapore, 12 Science Drive 2, Singapore 117549

Abstract:

Since 2019, the NIH IDSEQ study (NCT04034264) has enrolled participants with acute febrile illness in Cambodian public hospitals and applied in-country metagenomic sequencing to detect and characterize infectious agents in clinical samples. Over 3,000 participants (ages 2 months – 65 years) have been enrolled and 5,000 samples collected over five years.

Study results have revealed a diverse pathogen landscape in Cambodia with a predominance of arboviruses (dengue and chikungunya viruses) among serum samples, Enteroviruses, Influenzaviruses, Orthopneumoviruses, and Respiroviruses among nasopharyngeal samples, and multi-drug resistant (MDR) Escherichia coli, Acinetobacter baumannii, and Burkholderia pseudomallei among blood culture isolates. Collectively, these findings have led to tangible public health impacts, including tailored national surveillance and local diagnostic algorithms that have enabled enhanced detection and response to endemic and emerging pathogens in Cambodia.