ASEAN launches Airborne Infection Defense Platform

The initiative was inaugurated at a side event of the 16th ASEAN Health Ministers Meeting (AHMM), where government leaders from ASEAN member states gathered.

It aims to strengthen ASEAN countries' tuberculosis (TB) response, health care systems, and pandemic preparedness to address the growing issue of airborne respiratory infections.

With a view to enhancing cooperation to combat airborne respiratory infections, the AIDP will work together with ASEAN member states and key global organizations to agree upon policies and methodologies, as well as exchange learnings, use of infrastructure, platform technology, and manpower to create surge capacity for TB cases and enhance pandemic preparedness.

AIDP is supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by Stop TB Partnership and Stop TB Partnership Indonesia (STPI), a non-governmental organization that works towards the elimination of TB. The platform is endorsed by the ASEAN member states.

More than 2.4 million people across ASEAN are estimated to be affected by TB, based on the Global TB Report 2023.

Five ASEAN countries (Indonesia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand, and Viet Nam) are on the World Health Organization (WHO) high-burden TB list.

Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic devastated national TB prevention and treatment programs as personnel and resources were redirected from TB to COVID-19, leading to an estimated increase of almost half a million additional deaths of TB from 2020 to 2022.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Viet Nam ranks 11th among 30 countries with the highest TB burden globally. In 2023, WHO estimated that Viet Nam has approximately 172,000 new TB cases and about 13,000 deaths due to TB annually, surpassing the number of deaths from traffic accidents.

Despite the progress made, Viet Nam still bears a very high burden of TB. The nation faces significant challenges that need to be addressed to achieve the goal of ending TB by 2035, such as financial difficulties, actively searching for tuberculosis cases, etc./.