From SARS to the Nipah virus, Southeast Asia as a region has experienced its fair share of infectious disease outbreaks. Furthermore, the recent Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak where secondary transmission has occurred within health facilities has exposed the weaknesses within international health responses on a global scale.
Professor Richard Coker, Dr Mishal Khan and Dr Andrew Lover from the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health have proposed a new framework to assess the risk of an EVD outbreak recurring within a country, which will act as a guide on how to increase country-level preparedness.
In drawing up this framework, the team has taken into account factors such as religious and cultural variations across and within countries, trust levels between public institutions and the population, the capability to provide specially trained medical response teams.
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- East Asia Forum, 15 November 2014, Saturday