ASEAN+3 develop partnership against epidemics

BAGNKOK, January 28 (TNA) - Ten member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), as well as China, Japan and South Korea, known as ASEAN+3, have launched joint efforts to tackle epidemics ahead of the formation of the ASEAN Community (AC) by 2015. The joint efforts were agreed at the 3rd Steering Committee Meeting of ASEAN+3 Field Epidemiology Training Network (FETN), held at the Ministry of Public Health's Department of Disease Control in Bangkok on Monday, in which over 60 health authorities from Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, China, Japan and South Korea, as well as representatives of international organizations, namely the World Health Organization (WHO), participated. The participants discussed forming their network for the training of field epidemiologists who can effectively contain epidemics. Thai Permanent Secretary for Public Health Dr. Narong Sahametapat said, when opening the regional meeting, that there are now about 2.5 billion people in ASEAN+3 nations, accounting for about one-third of the total world population, and a meeting of ASEAN+3 health ministers in Singapore in 2010 resolved to create the network for the production of field epidemiologists for effective outbreak control. Dr. Narong acknowledged that his ministry has been assigned to push for the networking in ASEAN+3 to reduce health and economic damages. Over the past 10 years, ASEAN has experienced several major outbreaks, including the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), avian influenza, human influenza, Nipah virus in Malaysia and E coli 0157 in Japan. The diseases were transmitted internationally through travels and food and water contamination. There are as many as 1,200 teams of outbreak control officials in Thailand now. (TNA)