Dr Abdullah Asiri, Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Minister for Preventive Health, has been chosen as one of the members of the World Health Organization’s Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO).
The SAGO includes 28 members of the world’s leading scientists, representing a wide range of disciplines including epidemiology, public health, biology, and other disciplines.
The SAGO will advise WHO on the development of a global framework to define and guide studies into the origins of emerging and re-emerging pathogens of epidemic and pandemic potential, including SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19).
Dr Nada Ghosn, the head of the Epidemiology Surveillance Program and Medical officer for the Directorate of Prevention at the Ministry of Health, Lebanon, is another member of SAGO from the Middle East.