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\nThe U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) funds nine non-research bilateral influenza cooperative agreements in the South-East Asia Region (SEAR). Cooperative agreements with eight Ministries of Health (MOH) or institutions designated by the MOH build capacity to routinely identify, diagnose and respond to seasonal, avian and pandemic influenza. In addition, CDC supports the WHO Regional Office for South-East Asia (SEARO) via a cooperative agreement.
\nSix of the eight countries (Bangladesh pdf icon[802 KB, 2 pages] , India pdf icon[787 KB, 2 pages] , Indonesia pdf icon[1.2 MB, 2 pages] , Nepal pdf icon[834 KB, 2 pages] , Sri Lanka pdf icon[821 KB, 2 pages] and Thailand pdf icon[848 KB, 2 pages] ) were awarded sustainability grants and are in varying stages of completion. These grants support the countries for additional five years. Bhutan pdf icon[531 KB, 1 page] and Maldives pdf icon[531 KB, 1 page] were awarded their first influenza capacity building grants in September 2013. Countries are expected to do the following: develop and maintain a surveillance system that allows countries to rapidly detect, identify and respond to seasonal, novel and pandemic influenza, participate in the World Health Organization\u2019s (WHO) Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System (GISRS), and create and implement a sustainability plan that phases out U.S. government funding.
\nCore activities include improving laboratory and epidemiologic capacity and infrastructure for influenza virologic and disease surveillance; developing and maintaining sentinel hospital-based surveillance for influenza-like illness and severe acute respiratory infections; integrating laboratory and epidemiologic influenza surveillance; developing and maintaining surveillance for cases and clusters of respiratory illnesses; and training local rapid response and containment teams.
\nKaren Siener, MPH
Public Health Advisor
Extramural Program
Influenza Division, NCIRD
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Email: ksiener@cdc.gov
Fatimah Dawood, MD
Medical Officer/Epidemiologist
International Epidemiology and Response Team
Influenza Division, NCIRD
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Email: hgj0@cdc.gov
Danielle Iuliano, MPH, PhD
Research Scientist
International Epidemiology and Response Team
Influenza Division, NCIRD
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Email: aoi0@cdc.gov
Katie Lafond, MPH
Epidemiologist
International Epidemiology and Response Team
Influenza Division, NCIRD
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Email: gmj3@cdc.gov
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A map of the WHO South-East Asia Region (SEAR) shows all 11 SEAR member states/countries. The member countries, outlined with gray borders, include Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bhutan, DPR Korea, Myanmar, Maldives and Timor-Leste.
\nCountries with shading indicate that the Influenza Division provides project funding and technical assistance through cooperative agreements. Bhutan and the Maldives are shaded yellow to indicate Capacity Building Cooperative Agreements. Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Thailand are shaded green to indicate Sustainability Cooperative Agreements. Bangladesh and India also have yellow diagonal stripes across the country to indicate Research Cooperative Agreements.
\nCDC Field Staff, indicated by a yellow dot outlined in red, are located in the following cities: Bangkok, Dhaka, Jakarta and New Delhi.
\nThe Global Disease Detection [GDD] Sites, indicated by red X\u2019s, are located in Bangkok, Thailand and New Delhi, India.
\nWHO National Influenza Centers (NICs), indicated by a purple dot, are located in the following cities: Colombo, Dhaka, Jakarta, Kathmandu, Nonthaburi, Pune, Pyongyang, and Yangon.
\nThe WHO Regional Office for South-East Asia (SEARO), indicated by a blue star, is located in New Delhi, India.
\nIn September 2006, WHO Regional Office for South-East Asia (SEARO) was awarded their first five-year influenza cooperative agreement, and is currently in their second five year agreement which began in 2012.
\nSEARO is located in New Delhi, India. The Office serves 11 countries; together their population exceeds 1.7 billion people. Member countries include Bangladesh, Bhutan, DPR Korea, India, Indonesia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Timor-Leste. Eight of the 11 countries are currently receiving CDC Influenza Division cooperative agreement funds: Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Thailand.
\nIn 2012 and 2013, WHO SEARO staff provided training, support and technical assistance to member countries to strengthen preparedness, surveillance, response and laboratory capacity. WHO SEARO provides technical expertise, assistance and financial support to member states to strengthen their integrated influenza surveillance, to prepare for and effectively respond to influenza outbreaks and pandemics, to improve infrastructure and capacity of national influenza centres (NICS)/national influenza laboratories and to develop human resources. Responsibilities for these activities lay with SEARO\u2019s Disease Surveillance and Epidemiology (DSE), Blood Safety and Laboratory Technology (BLT) and Immunization and Vaccine Development (IVD) units.
\nSEARO with Prince Songkla University and U.S. CDC held an Influenza Data Management training for SEAR member states in February 2013 to assist data managers and epidemiologists in establishing, maintaining and improving influenza surveillance systems and analysis. The course better familiarized participants with FluNet and FluID data bases for collecting epidemiological and virological data for the Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System (GISRS).
\nWHO SEARO continued to support efforts to strengthen laboratory infrastructure and build laboratory capacities to accurately and promptly diagnose influenza and monitor antiviral resistance. Eight countries in the region have functional NICs in part due to the technical and financial support provided to the countries through the cooperative agreement. Of these NICs, two have full capacity for influenza viral sequencing, the regional reference lab for influenza in Thailand and the global reference laboratory for H5N1 in Pune, India.
\nThe recent avian influenza A/H7N9 outbreak in China provided an impetus for the South-East Asia region to direct the attention of the member states to the need for ensuring preparedness for responding to novel strains of influenza with pandemic potential. Taking a leadership role at the height of the avian influenza A/H7N9 outbreak in China, SEARO updated its member states on the status of the outbreak, convened inter-departmental meetings to discuss plans for shaping the regional response, issued interim guidelines, discussed the possibility of mobilizing financial resources from different sources including CDC and looked into stockpiling antiviral medicines in order to prepare for an effective response to possible imported cases and cases due to local transmission. Attention was focused on revising national influenza pandemic preparedness and response plans including national pandemic vaccine deployment plans.
\nSangay Thinley, MBBS, MPH
Director, Family Health and Research
South-East Asia Regional Office
World Health Organization
New Delhi, India
Email: thinleys@searo.who.int
Arun Thapa, MBBS, MS
Coordinator, Immunization and Vaccine Development
South-East Asia Regional Office
World Health Organization
New Delhi, India
Email: thapaa@who.int
Patrick O\u2019Connor, MD
Regional Advisor
Immunization and Vaccine Development
South-East Asia Regional Office
World Health Organization
New Delhi, India
Email: oconnorp@who.int
Pushpa Ranjan Wijesinghe, MD, MPH, MSc
Medical Officer
Emerging Vaccine Preventable Disease Surveillance
South-East Asia Regional Office
World Health Organization
New Delhi, India
Email: wijesinghep@who.int
Rajesh Bhatia, MBBS, MD, DIM, DIT
Director, Communicable Diseases
South-East Asia Regional Office
World Health Organization
New Delhi, India
Email: bhatiaraj@who.int
Richard Brown, BM, DTM&H, DA, MPH, MRCGP, MFPH
Regional Advisor
Disease Surveillance and Epidemiology
South-East Asia Regional Office
World Health Organization
New Delhi, India
Email: brownr@who.int
Aparna Singh Shah, MBBS, MD, Post-doctoral Fellowship
Regional Advisor, Blood Safety and Laboratory Technology
South-East Asia Regional Office
World Health Organization
New Delhi, India
Email: shahap@who.int
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