Materia Medica Malaysiana

DPM: Adopt regional response against diseases

Asean countries have to adopt rapid and effective regional response mechanisms to effectively combat any future outbreaks of communicable diseases, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said.

He said the SARS outbreak, which had caused the Asian economies to suffer damages in the region of RM40.3bil, had highlighted the need for a more effective and co-ordinated early warning surveillance and communication mechanisms among member countries.

“These mechanisms to warn against threats to public health will contribute much to long-term epidemic preparedness and capacity building for combating any future outbreaks,” he said in his keynote speech at the opening of the 7th Asean Health Ministers’ Meeting and the first Asean + 3 Health Ministers’ Meeting yesterday.

The meeting, themed Health Without Frontiers and held from April 17 and ending today, saw the attendance of heads of delegations from Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, People’s Republic of China, Japan and Republic of Korea.

Two important health related activities, which have been identified for deliberation by the technical groups during the meeting, were the Special Meeting of the Asean Expert Group on Communicable Diseases and the Asean Ad Hoc Working Group Meeting on Traditional Medicine/Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

Najib noted that co-operation between countries in and around the region had contributed to Malaysia’s success in containing the SARS outbreak.

Health Minister Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek in his address said the experience gained by Asian countries in controlling the SARS outbreak would ensure that the group would be ready when the next new disease strikes without warning, especially diseases with the potential for international spread.

“Past experience has shown that an integrated and comprehensive action plan is crucial in combating communicable diseases, especially those posed by emerging and re-emerging infections.

“Various initiatives under the Asean umbrella are now under way which would provide a long-term framework for the strengthening of surveillance of communicable diseases within the region,” he added.