South-East Asia Regional Roadmap for Diagnostic Preparedness, Integrated Laboratory Networking and Genomic Surveillance (2023–2027)

Overview

In the first quarter of this century alone, the South-East Asia Region experienced several outbreaks of influenza A (H1N1), avian influenza A (H5N1), influenza A (H9N2), Nipah virus, Japanese encephalitis, Crimean–Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF), Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERSCoV), chikungunya, dengue, and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), and prepared for a potential Ebola outbreak, before grappling with the latest SARS-CoV-2 outbreak that has caused the COVID-19 pandemic (1). But threats are not viral alone in nature, the pandemic has also accelerated the global crisis of antimicrobial resistance (2). Besides causing considerable morbidity, mortality and economic loss, these events have highlighted significant gaps in disease surveillance systems for early detection and response due to the limitations in clinical and public health laboratory capacities across the Member States.