(From left) Mr John Edgar, Director of USAID Regional Development Mission for Asia, ASEAN Office; Dr Teodoro Herbosa, Stop TB Partnership Board Chairman; Lao Minister of Health Dr Bounfeng Phoummalaysith; and Dr Phonepadith Xangsayarath, Director General of the ministry’s Department of Communicable Disease Control attend the launch of the Airborne Infection Defense Platform at the 16th ASEAN Health Ministers’ Meeting.

ASEAN health ministers launch scheme to strengthen pandemic preparedness, defence against airborne infections

The Airborne Infection Defense Platform was officially launched on August​ 7 to strengthen ASEAN countries’ tuberculosis (TB) response, health care systems, and pandemic preparedness to address the growing issue of airborne respiratory infections.
The initiative was inaugurated at a side event of the 16th ASEAN Health Ministers’ Meeting, where government leaders from ASEAN member states gathered.

The opening remarks were given by Laos’ Minister of Health, Dr Bounfeng Phoummalaysith, while attendees included the Deputy Director of the ministry’s Department of Communicable Disease Control, Dr Viengsavanh Kittiphong, other ASEAN delegations and Stop TB Partnership leaders.
The leaders came together to improve understanding of TB and pandemic preparedness across ASEAN, enhance stakeholder cooperation, and strengthen nations’ capacity to address airborne respiratory infections.
The Airborne Infection Defense Platform is supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by the Stop TB Partnership and Stop TB Partnership Indonesia, a non-governmental organisation that works towards the elimination of TB. The platform is endorsed by the ASEAN member states.
More than 2.4 million people across ASEAN are estimated to be affected by TB, based on the Global TB Report 2023.
Five ASEAN countries (Indonesia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam) are on the World Health Organization (WHO) high burden TB list.
Furthermore, the Covid-19 pandemic devastated national TB prevention and treatment programmes as personnel and resources were redirected from TB to Covid-19, leading to an estimated increase of almost half a million additional deaths from TB from 2020 to 2022.
In Laos, the five major risk factors for TB are smoking, alcohol use disorders, undernourishment, HIV and diabetes, according to WHO.
Malnutrition is common in people with TB, increasing the risk of TB infection or activating its latent form. A study conducted in 2022 found that 41 percent of participants were malnourished at the time, with a BMI of under 18.5.
In 2022, an estimated 10,000 people were diagnosed with tuberculosis, at a rate of 138 per 100,000 population. There were 1,000 deaths, according to WHO.
In his opening remarks, Laos’ Minister of Health Dr Bounfeng Phoummalaysith said “The Covid-19 pandemic impacted nearly every aspect of human life. We must learn from our experiences and be better prepared for any similar situations in the future. Our regional health system is evolving and we need to create a stronger and more resilient system.”
“The TB programme has several management principles that can be easily adopted for any airborne disease, such as rapid screening tools, contact tracing, digital and community systems, and early warning systems. We need to invest in platform technologies and create infrastructure that can be deployed for future airborne pandemics.”
During a leadership dialogue at the event, Deputy Director of the Lao health ministry’s Department of Communicable Disease Control, Dr Viengsavanh Kittiphong, said “TB is one of the top public health concerns in our country. We have been using new technology such as GenExpert to detect TB, digital X-rays, and early diagnostics tools. We also share information with other ASEAN member states for laboratory capacity building, supporting early detection and diagnosis, and strengthening primary health care.”
Aiming to enhance cooperation to combat airborne respiratory infections, the Airborne Infection Defense Platform will work together with ASEAN member states and key global organisations to agree upon policies and methodologies, as well as exchange learnings, use of infrastructure, platform technology and manpower to create surge capacity for TB cases and enhance pandemic preparedness.
Prof. Tjandra Yoga Aditama MD, Stop TB Partnership Indonesia Senior Advisor and Airborne Infection Defense Platform Project Lead, said “The high death toll from the Covid-19 pandemic showed that the world was not prepared to combat the pandemic. In addition to the loss of human life, Covid-19 also severely impacted TB prevention, access, and treatment programmes.”
“The condition of tuberculosis in ASEAN is quite concerning, with many countries in the region still facing significant challenges in controlling and managing TB. This demonstrates the importance of working with ASEAN to strengthen the TB response system to not only create surge capacity for TB cases but also enhance pandemic preparedness.”
Preceded by conducting a landscape assessment, the Airborne Infection Defense Platform will focus on strengthening pandemic and TB responses in each ASEAN country, including at the community and primary care levels.
This will be done by enhancing existing healthcare infrastructure to improve detection, treatment, and prevention. It will also include leveraging platform technologies that have developed since the Covid-19 pandemic, including portable digital X-rays that enable testing to be done locally without the need for people to travel to hospitals or clinics, rapid molecular diagnostic platform technologies, and real-time digital surveillance tools.
These various TB preparedness measures will be beneficial in facing a future pandemic, which is highly likely to be an airborne infectious disease.
Deputy Executive Director, Stop TB Partnership, Dr Suvanand Sahu said “The first phase of the Airborne Infection Defense Platform project will improve understanding by carrying out a landscape assessment across 10 ASEAN countries. This will outline the current capacities of each country to respond to TB and future airborne pandemics and recommend actions to achieve better pandemic preparedness.”
“Following this, our second phase will support community-based and primary health care activities and initiatives to strengthen the preparedness capacity of TB responses across ASEAN to better address airborne respiratory infections or pandemics.”
“We would like to thank USAID for their continued commitment to tackling TB around the world, particularly in the ASEAN region, whose efforts have culminated in the Airborne Infection Defense Platform. We would also like to thank the Lao government for their leadership in convening the first meeting about the Platform.”
Finally, the incoming Stop TB Partnership Board Chairman, Dr Theodore Herbosa, said “One thing we have learned during the pandemic is that a strong system against TB can be a significant asset in dealing with other airborne diseases. Investing in tackling one airborne infection such as TB is an investment in tackling all airborne infections.”
Tuberculosis has a high mortality rate of almost 15 percent, compared to Covid-19, which stands at 3.5 percent.
Research by Hogan et al. (2020) showed that TB prevention and treatment was significantly affected during the Covid-19 pandemic, where TB case detection decreased, household transmission of TB increased, BCG vaccination rates dropped, and access to TB drugs and testing declined.

ByTimes Reporters
 (Latest Update August 9, 2024)