E-Paper
India, 9 Asian nations to tackle emerging diseases
Due to increased mobility and migrations, epidemic disease patterns were becoming more or less similar in countries which shared borders, say experts
Given the rising mobility and migration among people from various countries, India and nine south-east Asian nations have decided to collaborate under the World Health Organisation - South East Asian Regional Organisation (WHO-SEARO) to tackle the rising threat of emerging diseases across the globe.
Dr RR Gangakhedkar, director, epidemic diseases, at Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), said, “The research platform will be provided with technical support by WHO which will also act as coordinator.”
He said, “Due to increased mobility and migrations, epidemic disease patterns were becoming more or less similar in countries which shared borders.”
He cited the example of the Zika virus infection which was successfully curbed. India has taken the lead in this initiative to understand these issues better, the senior ICMR researcher said.
The nine nations with which India is collaborating are Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Maldives, Indonesia, DPR Korea, Myanmar and Nepal.
Dr Gangakhedkar said, “Given India’s success in curbing international outbreaks such as Zika and the Nipah virus infections, Asian countries have decided to come together and selected India to lead the initiative. India (ICMR) will be the secretariat right now; later other countries too will get the chance.”
The platform which was launched on August 29 has been named as ‘RESEARCH - Regional Enabler for South-East Asia Research Collaboration for Health’ and will be run in partnership with WHO and nine countries of the region.
