SAGO

The World Health Organization has created an advisory group with the primary aim of finding the origins of the Covid-19 virus as well as all future pandemic level potential viruses’. This group will develop a global framework which will be used to study the various pathogens with having a level pandemic potential.

Highlights

The new advisory group for the World Health Organisation is named as International Scientific Advisory Group for origins of Novel pathogens or its acronym which is known as SAGO.

The global health agency had earlier proposed a second phase of studies on the origins of the coronavirus in China. These studies will include audits of laboratories and markets in the city of Wuhan which is said to be the origins of the virus.

Objective of SAGO

This agency will be responsible for advising the WHO regarding the development framework which will be implemented globally with the aim to systematically investigate the emergence of all the future emerging pathogens with a pandemic level potential.

Functions of SAGO

Advise WHO on the development of a WHO level global framework to guide and define studies on the origins of all the emerging and re-emerging pathogens with pandemic and epidemic potential. Advise WHO in the prioritization of field studies and research on the origin of emerging and recurrent pathogens with epidemic and pandemic potential in accordance with the WHO global framework. Provide additional support as well as advice to WHO as and when requested by the WHO-SAGO Secretariat.

WHO has also urged all country’s governments to depoliticize the situation surrounding the pandemic and work together to accelerate the origin studies of the Covid-19 virus as well as work together to develop a common framework to tackle all the future pandemic level pathogens.