Commonground
Senior Moderator
27 FEBRUARY 2026
Public heath interventions are more effective with a proactive monitoring approach
Key points
Chemical biomarkers are measurable molecular signatures (host immune markers, pathogen metabolites, volatile organic compounds, environmental chemical signals) that can indicate infection days before symptoms or pathogen detection, making them powerful tools for early-warning surveillance that can complement genomic and clinical surveillance in humans and animals.
India’s burden of endemic and emerging zoonoses is compounded by dense human and livestock populations, widespread informal animal markets and environmental change. Ongoing surveillance methods often rely on clinical case reporting, pathogen-specific diagnostics and laboratory confirmation which is slow and many spillovers are detected only after symptomatic human cases cluster.
Integrating chemical biomarker-based surveillance tools into India’s One Health surveillance architecture would strengthen detection at the animal–human–environment interface and help prevent emergence of zoonotic disease outbreaks. To enable chemical biomarkers to function as core public health infrastructure for early detection of zoonotic disease threats, a governance model is required, and the ethical, operational and policy challenges that accompany their implementation must be addressed.
continued: https://www.chemistryworld.com/opin...ed,preparedness, as well climate-driven range
Public heath interventions are more effective with a proactive monitoring approach
Key points
Chemical biomarkers are measurable molecular signatures (host immune markers, pathogen metabolites, volatile organic compounds, environmental chemical signals) that can indicate infection days before symptoms or pathogen detection, making them powerful tools for early-warning surveillance that can complement genomic and clinical surveillance in humans and animals.
India’s burden of endemic and emerging zoonoses is compounded by dense human and livestock populations, widespread informal animal markets and environmental change. Ongoing surveillance methods often rely on clinical case reporting, pathogen-specific diagnostics and laboratory confirmation which is slow and many spillovers are detected only after symptomatic human cases cluster.
Integrating chemical biomarker-based surveillance tools into India’s One Health surveillance architecture would strengthen detection at the animal–human–environment interface and help prevent emergence of zoonotic disease outbreaks. To enable chemical biomarkers to function as core public health infrastructure for early detection of zoonotic disease threats, a governance model is required, and the ethical, operational and policy challenges that accompany their implementation must be addressed.
continued: https://www.chemistryworld.com/opin...ed,preparedness, as well climate-driven range