Rapid Environmental Monitoring for Human Pathogens Using Mobile Laboratory-Based Metagenomics

The surveillance of human pathogens is critical for public health. This article outlines the preparation stage, an example results and final implementation in Tanzania of a mobile laboratory equipped with high throughput sequencing and qPCR portable technologies to enhance environmental surveillance of human pathogens.We concluded that, the integration of mobile laboratories equipped with metagenomic sequencing and qPCR technologies in combination with rapid bioinformatic analysis and interactive data visualization represents a transformative approach to environmental surveillance of human pathogens in low-resource settings. By enhancing detection capabilities and enabling rapid responses to outbreaks, this strategy has the potential to significantly improve public health outcomes. Furthermore, the implementation of mobile laboratories facilitates stronger engagement of local researchers and thus increase local expertise in human pathogen surveillance strategies.