Influenza experts in the Asia Pacific met for the 13th bi-regional meeting of National Influenza Centres (NICs) and Influenza Surveillance in the Western Pacific and South-East Asia Regions. The meeting took place from 21- 23 August in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, known as the “Land of Blue Sky.” Hundred and thirty people from 26 countries participated.
“We are united in our job of protecting the health of our populations” said Ms. Sarangarel Davaajantsan, the Minister of Health of Mongolia, in her opening remarks. “Today we are here to discuss how we can serve our populations by taking measures to prepare for and prevent the emergence of an influenza pandemic”.
One of the focuses of the meeting was to highlight the value of using multiple sources of information for influenza risk and severity assessment, as well as response decision-making. This allowed countries to further streamline their surveillance systems in the face of sustainability challenges, to focus on core systems and to generate information for decision-making.
Now a decade on from the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, the meeting also highlighted pandemic preparedness as a driving force to advance health security systems. Timor Leste shared their recent experiences in developing their national pandemic preparedness plan, which was integrated with the National Action Plan for Health Security and also incorporated recommendations of the International Health Regulations (IHR) Joint External Evaluation (JEE). Countries shared how they use response planning to identify gaps in systems and prioritize efforts to further strengthen capabilities to address influenza epidemics and pandemics. They also presented successful implementation examples of the Asia Pacific Strategy for Emerging Diseases and Public Health Emergencies’s two-tier approach..
Participants later brainstormed priorities for the coming 5 years to strengthen national influenza systems as well as global and regional collaboration by applying the “back-casting” approach: Establishing the vision, then looking back to effectively prioritize actions to achieve the vision.
The meeting strengthened networks, friendships and re-enforced valuable contributions of the annual bi-regional meetings of NICs and Influenza Surveillance to strengthen global and regional collaborations. The bi-regional meeting highlighted its importance as a solid foundation for collectively monitoring, preparing for and responding to influenza epidemics and pandemics, and applicability of this foundation for tackling other health security threats in the Asia Pacific Region and beyond.
Meeting report: National Influenza Centres and Influenza Surveillance in the WHO’s South-East Asia and Western Pacific Regions