NEW DELHI: India has proposed the creation of a South-East Asia Network of transboundary collaborative surveillance, which will help enhance multi-source surveillance to strengthen the response to health emergencies in the region, the WHO said on Thursday.
The proposal will be discussed with the 11 member countries of the World Health Organisation (WHO) South-East Asia Region (SEARO) later this year.
The proposal was made during the three-day regional meeting, ‘Advancing multisource collaborative surveillance in WHO South-East Asia Region.’
At the event, Saima Wazed, Regional Director of the WHO South-East Asia Region (SEARO), said that in line with the approaches of multisource collaborative surveillance (MSCS), India has proposed the creation of a South-East Asia Network of transboundary collaborative surveillance, which is expected to be discussed with member countries later this year.
To support countries in operationalising the concept of multi-source surveillance, the WHO Regional Office for South-East Asia developed a regional manual, Informing Public Health Decision-Making with Multisource Collaborative Surveillance: A Step-by-Step Approach.
Using the manual, Indonesia and Nepal have initiated the implementation of multisource collaborative surveillance (MSCS).
The MSCS approach is critical as gathering and synthesising information from different sources is not always easy.
"The systems and data are owned by different surveillance stakeholders within and beyond the health sector, and mechanisms and procedures are not always in place to timely and effectively share and synthesise data and information from various sources," she said.
“Through our experience of responding to pandemics and emergencies, we have learnt that decision-making to manage health emergencies should be informed by a synthesis of multiple sources of information,” she said.
“This approach requires the strengthening of surveillance systems and capacities, and collaboration among diverse stakeholders from multiple sectors. The future of health security in our region depends on sustainable investments in surveillance and laboratory capacities, timely data sharing, and cross-sectoral partnerships,” the Regional Director said.
At the meet, the 11 member countries, including India, decided to further enhance multi-source surveillance to improve public health intelligence and evidence for decision-making during complex health emergencies that are marked by uncertainties and compounded by multiple vulnerabilities.
Emphasising that strong laboratory systems are the backbone of effective surveillance, Wazed called for enhancing investment in sustainable diagnostic capacities.
Officials from member countries heading surveillance for epidemic and pandemic-prone diseases, public health laboratories, national public health operations centres, surveillance in other sectors such as animal health, environment, and meteorology, and those responsible for communicating events under International Health Regulations, as well as experts and partners, participated in the meeting.
They discussed priority actions to enhance collaboration among in-country surveillance stakeholders across sectors and improve international information sharing and cross-border collaboration in the context of the amended International Health Regulations (IHR) (2005).
Decision-making during pandemics, epidemics, climate change-driven health emergencies like vector-borne and waterborne diseases, and other threats from the human-animal-ecosystem interface - zoonosis, food-borne diseases, antimicrobial resistance, and health threats caused by disasters and humanitarian crises - requires multi-sectoral solutions.
The participants discussed opportunities to adopt innovation and enablers to strengthen early warning surveillance systems and public health intelligence, including the roles of genomic surveillance and wastewater surveillance as part of multi-source collaborative surveillance.
They discussed priority actions for the development of national action plans to guide the governance, implementation, and sustainability of genomic surveillance systems as a multisectoral approach.
“We must continue to embrace innovation and stronger regional collaboration,” the Regional Director said, reiterating WHO’s commitment and its vision to promote regional and multi-sectoral collaboration, including among One Health stakeholders, and to use innovation to improve public health in the WHO South-East Asia Region.