APEC Symposium on Emerging Infectious Diseases Enhances Cooperation

APEC Member Economies have agreed to a range of measures to enhance the region's surveillance and response capacity for dealing with emerging infectious diseases.

After two days of meetings at the "APEC Symposium on Emerging Infectious Diseases" in Beijing this week, Member Economies have agreed to establish and improve existing infectious disease surveillance networks and regional laboratory networks in the Asia-Pacific.

In the statement that was agreed by the symposium, Member Economies also agreed to enhance bio-safety standards at commercial farms and markets, improve veterinary capacity to detect and report infectious disease outbreaks and to strengthen animal health capacity to respond to outbreaks.

In agreeing to the range of measures the delegates to the Seminar also made plans to undertake an assessment of the economic and social impacts of emerging infectious diseases in the region. This research is expected to then help Member Economies develop policies that will guide decision-making in the event of a crisis.

Member Economies have also agreed to increase technical and scientific cooperation for the development of prevention and control measures among economies to better deal with emerging infectious diseases.

The symposium on April 4-5 was opened by China's Vice Minister for Health, Dr. Chen Xiaohong, and included presentations from representatives from the World Health Organization and the Asian Development Bank.

The full text of the Consensus from the Beijing APEC Symposium on Emerging Infectious Diseases is available here.

The APEC Ministerial Meeting on Avian and Influenza Pandemics is the next major APEC event scheduled to deal with the threats posed by emerging infectious diseases and will be held in Da Nang, Viet Nam, on May 4-6.