6 The economic advantages of WGS for AMR surveillance

What are some of the ways that using WGS as part of an AMR surveillance system can provide economic benefits to a country or region?

While the above-mentioned costs associated with WGS can seem overwhelming, the economic benefits of introducing the new technology are also remarkable. The introduction of a tool that can aid in early detection and identification of outbreaks in the short term and can prevent the longer-term loss of economic growth and productivity can be highly beneficial.

The use of WGS can:

• guide antimicrobial stewardship
• evaluate the effectiveness of diagnostic tools
• improve contract tracing (Khoo et al., 2024).

Because AMR impacts not just humans but animals and food as well, cost ‘gains’ associated with averted outbreaks can save significant sums by preventing the need to cull herds or stop the export of a country’s produce.

While it is difficult to put a specific value on the gains of an outbreak that was avoided or mitigated, a major economic benefit of surveillance is preparedness – which should not be underestimated.

A few studies have tried to monetise these savings. An analysis of the USFDA GenomeTrakr SGS Network estimated that the system would accrue an estimated annual health benefit of nearly $500 million, compared with an approximately $22 million investment by public health agencies (Brown et al., 2021). A study of the introduction of WGS in the detection of Salmonellosis outbreaks in Canada estimated monetary and non-monetary costs. The incidence of illnesses in Canada was 47,082 annually, representing a cost of C$287.78 million (total cases) and C$166.28 million (reported cases). The introduction of WGS was estimated to accrue benefits ranging from C$5.21 million to C$90.25 million (Jain, Mukhopadhyay and Thomassin, 2019).