Genetic traces to follow the journey of viruses
Towards a global view of epidemics
The Nextstrain tool, from which this map is derived, shows how viruses evolve and circulate around the world. It is one of many tools and databases within the Pathogen Data Network, an international project led by Switzerland. This project facilitates global data sharing and uses AI to provide a comprehensive overview of infectious agents – from viruses to bacteria – and to better understand the risks associated with emerging threats.
A virus has a genetic identity card; each change in this card (mutation) can create a more contagious or more or less dangerous variant.
The size of the circles indicates how many viral genetic profiles a region has shared – sometimes hundreds of thousands!
The colours indicate the variants of the virus; the lines trace their spread between regions of the world.
Bioinformatics transforms viral identity maps into living maps for tracking epidemics in near real time.