A Feasibility Study on the Establishment of “ASEAN Centre for Public Health Emergencies and Emerging Diseases”

The Southeast Asia region continues to be confronted by threats of new and reemerging infectious diseases. In addition to the recent coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the region was affected by substantial number of emerging diseases in the past decades, such as H5N1/H7N9 avian influenza, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Nipah virus disease, H1N1 pandemic Influenza, the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), Severe Febrile Thrombocytopenia Syndrome (SFTS) and Zika virus disease. These threats have varying consequences and not only endangered the lives of people but also massively affected the productivity and socio-economic conditions in all ASEAN Member States (AMS).

Despite the current approach in addressing this vulnerability, there is an increasing need for an entity to strengthen the functions of national public health agencies and promote public health and safety through control and prevention of disease, injury and disability at the regional level. The need is magnified by the current nature of diseases and their transmission, the proximity of AMS to each other as well as inter- and intra- regional movement of people. Leveraging on the existing mechanisms under the ASEAN Health Sector in responding to all hazards and emerging threats, notably the ASEAN Emergency Operation Centre (ASEAN EOC) Network and other project components of the Mitigation of Biological Threats (MBT) Programme, that responded to the COVID-19 threat in early 2020, the ASEAN Health Sector with the support from Government of Japan initiated a project to conduct A Feasibility Study on the Establishment of “ASEAN Centre for Public Health Emergencies and Emerging Diseases” ¹ which aims to assess the practicality of the proposed institution and provide key recommendations that will serve as inputs to strategic decision making at the regional level.