55th Regional Committee of the WHO Regional Office for the Western Pacific Ministerial roundtable discussion on International Cooperation in the face of Public Health Emergencies Summary Report All Member States expressed their appreciation for the timeliness of the discussion on this important topic.
Aftermath of SARS epidemics and due to the current attention given to ongoing Avian Influenza outbreaks, all Member States mentioned the strong political commitment and high priority being given to improve public health system to face public health emergencies. This is the front burner issue of concern to all Member States.
All Member States have established various forms of interagency collaboration mechanism to deal with public health emergencies involving all relevant Ministries, Agencies and stakeholders within each country.
Four main themes emerge out of the Ministerial roundtable discussion. 1. Legislative issues 2. International collaboration 3. Information sharing 4. Capacity building
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A number of Member States has mentioned that they are in the process of reviewing, revising or enacting their legislation dealing with public health emergencies or infectious diseases control and prevention. Some Member States expressed their need of technical and funding support to improve their public health infrastructure including the legislative framework to deal with public health emergencies.
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One of the main themes coming out of the Ministerial roundtable discussion is the vital importance of international collaboration to deal with public health emergencies. There are examples of various sub-regional, regional and international collaboration mentioned by Member States, such as USASingapore collaboration on Regional Emerging Diseases Intervention Centre, Hong Kong-Macoa-Guangdong(China) collaboration, ASEAN and ASEAN plus 3 cooperation, as well as ongoing collaboration among Pacific Island Countries on communicable diseases surveillance, and laboratory networks. There are suggestions from Member States to strengthen SEAROIWPRO biregional collaboration to deal with future public health emergencies. Pacific Island Countries representatives have expressed their vulnerability and needs to be prepared for public health emergencies. Here, the important role of bilateral collaboration was illustrated by upcoming Australia's support to strengthen the public health system of Pacific Island Countries in dealing with both animal and human health.
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The essence of these international collaborations is rapid, real-time, unobstructive information sharing and notification of diseases outbreaks to
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national and international communities. It is important to share the right and relevant information among all major Ministries, Agencies, and stakeholders within and across countries. Member States have mentioned the need to filter information, to prevent distortion of information or misinformation, to manage media, and to communicate risks effectively to public, and health professionals including private and NGO sectors, in a transparent and timely manner. Many Member States highlighted the importance of a functioning information sharing mechanism in the fight against emerging diseases. • The major theme arising from the Ministerial roundtable discussion is on the needs and requirements of human resources capacity building to deal with public health emergencies by all Member States. Most Member States highlighted the issue of building minimum core capacity needed to successfully implement the revised International Health Regulation. Sharing of human resources technical expertise is another area touched upon by Member States. There are ongoing collaboration between Member States such as Australia and China, USA and Northern Pacific Island Countries, France Pasteur Institute's technical support and others.
How prepared are we in dealing with public health emergencies? Are we ready for the next influenza pandemic? Can we prevent it? These are some of the important questions raised by the Ministerial roundtable discussion.
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Every Member States reviewed these issues from their own perspectives. The onus is on the Member States to start the work now. It was agreed that it is the governments' basic mandate and responsibility to deal with public health emergencies.
Even with all Member States' concerted efforts to be prepared, there is a general agreement that WHO has been playing and will continue to playa leading role in international collaboration to fight public health emergencies. All Member States expressed their satisfaction with the way WHO is providing technical support in dealing with SARS and Avian Flu outbreaks although there are rooms for improvement. WHO is asked to play an active coordinating role to develop guidelines, to assist in legal and policy framework for IHR implementation, to set up mechanism for intensified cooperation of national centers dealing with emerging diseases, to establish stronger regional partnership, especially for capacity building and sharing of technical expertise, to promote transparent information sharing mechanism, and to coordinate research collaboration.
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