User:Kaiyanhk/Mekong Basin Disease Surveillance (MBDS)

Mekong Basin Disease Surveillance 

The Mekong Basin Disease Surveillance (MBDS) consortium is a self-organized and sub-regional cooperation spearheaded by health ministries from member countries to collaborate on infectious disease surveillance and control. The cooperation focuses on cross-border cooperation at selected sites and has matured through several phases of work.

There are six member countries which include the Kingdom of Cambodia, Yunnan province of People's Republic of China, Lao People's Democratic Republic, the Union of Myanmar, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, and the Kingdom of Thailand. Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of People's Republic of China became member in February 2008.

MBDS’ general objective is to reinforce the capabilities in response to the outbreaks of priority diseases, disease surveillance and then they can be effectively controlled among national and Mekong sub regional level. Priority diseases include vaccine preventable diseases, e.g., Malaria, Dengue Haemorrhagic Fever and Dengue Fever, Cholera and outbreaks of other unknown etiologies.

Background
Globalization has increased the risk of infectious diseases to spread around the globe. Worldwide cooperation is called for to effectively control the spread of these diseases across borders. This unprecedented project to monitor the diseases along the Mekong River is initiated by the Ministries of Health of Cambodia, China, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, which subsequently signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in 2001 in Kunming, China, with the Regional Coordinating office agreed to be located in the Ministry of Public Health (MOPH),Thailand.

Phase I
October 2000 - September 2003 MBDS partners started their formal cooperation by focusing on building basic epidemiology capacity at national and local levels.

Phase II
October 2003 – November 2007 The first four MBDS cross-border sites were established with initial activities focusing on exchange of surveillance information on agreed upon diseases and their frequencies across borders. MBDS also expanded its efforts beyond surveillance and undertook a series of provincial, national and regional tabletop exercises related to pandemic influenza preparedness.

Phase III
December 2007 – November 2010 In May 2007, the extension of Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed by the six MBDS health ministers in Geneva, for indefinite time period. With the increasing number of cross-border sites, MBDS developed a new 6-year action plan focusing on seven inter-related core strategies.

Core values
Mutual trust, transparency and cooperative spirit.

General goals
•	Strengthen sustainable national core capacities and sub-regional cooperation in disease surveillance and information sharing, outbreak investigation and response for priority diseases and PHEIC in order that they can be rapidly and effectively controlled (consistent with IHR 2005).

•	Provide essential information for the development of health and social policy to reduce the burden arising from these priority diseases.

•	Strengthen partnerships with other existing cooperation mechanisms.

Seven core strategies over 2008 to 2013
•	Maintain and expand cross-border cooperation

•	Improve human-animal sector interface and strengthen community-based surveillance

•	Strengthen epidemiology capacity

•	Strengthen Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) capacity

•	Strengthen laboratory capacity

•	Strengthen risk communications

•	Conduct and apply policy research

Vision for the future
•	Reduce the spread and impact of outbreak-prone diseases, including public health   emergency of international concern (PHEIC)

•	Serve as a model for sub-regional cooperation

Achievements
•	Trained field epidemiologist and health officials of Member Countries for strengthening national surveillance capacity

•	Applied epidemiology and GIS at central and provincial levels

•	Piloted cross-border cooperation: Regular information exchange, joint outbreak investigation, cross-border meetings, monitoring and evaluation, multi-sector engagement (especially immigration, local authorities), cross-border epidemiologic case history, cross-border medical care and clinical follow-up, expansion to nearby provincial areas

•	Initiated tabletop exercises (TTXs) on Pandemic Preparedness in country and regional levels

•	Strengthened MBDS network (MOU)

•	Created awareness among the senior health officials for strengthening national surveillance systems

•	Built trust, developed cooperation and perceived equality of sharing benefit and group values among member countries

•	Expanded MBDS partnerships (Rockefeller Foundation [RF], Nuclear Threat Initiative [NTI], Google, RAND, World Health Organization [WHO], United Nations System Influenza Coordination [UNSIC], U.S. Agency for International Development [USAID]/Kenan Institute, Asian Development Bank [ADB], Association of Southeast Asian Nations [ASEAN])

•	Increased MBDS visibility (e.g., through TTXs and MBDS Executive Board members’ interactions with high level counterparts)