Relevance of PM in Infectious and Non-communicable Chronic Diseases and Pandemics

Abstract

Precision medicine (PM) in the form of Pharmacogenomics (PGx) promises the use of diagnostic testing to provide the best clinical decisions based on a patient’s genetic profile, by analyzing the coding and structural variants in a patient’s genome to provide information about the causes of existing conditions, future risks for disease, and responsiveness to drugs. PM’s major future goals include preventing premature deaths, reduction of healthcare cost, and better prevention and management of emerging infectious diseases (EIDs), non-communicable diseases (NCDs), and management of pandemics, and development of vaccines – locally as well as globally. With the raging COVID-19 pandemic, PM is also expected to play a critical role in addressing the “emergence and reemergence” of new and more virulent pathogen infectious diseases, which remain a challenge as of today – killing several millions of people each year globally. Despite all these advantages, it will be difficult to navigate through the challenges and the ethical and social issues that are anticipated to arise for the clinical practice, public health, and policy making in the era of PM. This chapter looks at the importance of PM in infectious diseases and NCDs, and pandemics – while identifying and addressing some of the anticipated challenges.