The Airborne Infection Defense Platform (AIDP) was officially launched on 8 August in Vientiane Capital to strengthen ASEAN countries’ tuberculosis (TB) response, health care systems, and pandemic preparedness to address the growing issue of airborne respiratory infections.
The initiative was inaugurated at a side event of the 16th ASEAN Health Ministers Meeting (AHMM), where government leaders from ASEAN member states gathered.
The opening remarks were given by Bounfeng Phoummalaysith, Lao Minister of Health, while attendees included Viengsavanh Kittiphong, The ministry’s Deputy Director, Department of Communicable Disease Control, other ASEAN delegations, as well as Stop TB Partnership leaders. The leaders came together to improve understanding of TB and pandemic preparedness across ASEAN, enhance stakeholder cooperation, and strengthen nations’ capacity to address airborne respiratory infections.
AIDP is supported by the United States 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 Vietnam) 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.
In Laos, the five major risk factors for TB are smoking, alcohol use disorders, undernourishment, HIV, and diabetes, according to WHO. Malnutrition is common in people with TB, increasing the risk of TB infection or activating its latent form. A study in 2022 found that 41% of participants were malnourished at the time, with a BMI of under 18.5. In 2022, an estimated 10,000 people were diagnosed with tuberculosis (TB), at a rate of 138 per 100,000 population. There were 1,000 deaths, according to WHO.
In his opening remarks, Bounfeng Phoummalaysith said, “The Covid-19 pandemic impacted nearly every aspect of human life. We must learn from our experiences and be better prepared for any similar situations in the future. Our regional health system is evolving and we need to create a stronger and more resilient system. The TB program has several management principles that can be easily adapted for any airborne disease, such as rapid screening tools, contact tracing, digital and community systems, and early warning systems. We need to invest in platform technologies and create infrastructure that can be deployed for future airborne pandemics.”
During a leadership dialogue at the event, Viengsavanh Kittiphong said, “TB is one of the top public health concerns in our country. We have been using new technology such as GenExpert to detect TB, digital X-rays, and early diagnostics tools. We also share information with other ASEAN member states for laboratory capacity building, supporting early detection and diagnosis, and strengthening our primary health care.”
Aiming to enhance 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.
Prof Tjandra Yoga Aditama MD, Stop TB Partnership Indonesia Senior Advisor and Airborne Infection Defense Platform (AIDP) Project Lead said, “The high death toll from the Covid-19 pandemic showed that the world was not prepared to combat the pandemic. In addition to the loss of human life, Covid-19 also severely impacted TB prevention, access, and treatment programs.
The condition of tuberculosis (TB) in ASEAN is quite concerning, with many countries in the region still facing significant challenges in controlling and managing TB. This demonstrates the importance of working with ASEAN to strengthen the TB response system to not only create surge capacity for TB cases but also enhance pandemic preparedness.”
Preceded by conducting a landscape assessment, the AIDP will focus on strengthening pandemic and TB responses in each ASEAN country, including at the community and primary care levels. This will be done by enhancing existing healthcare infrastructure to improve detection, treatment, and prevention. It will also include leveraging platform technologies that have developed since the Covid-19 pandemic, including portable digital X-rays that enable testing to be done locally without the need for people to travel to hospitals or clinics, rapid molecular diagnostic platform technologies, and real-time digital surveillance tools. These various TB preparedness measures will be beneficial in facing a future pandemic, which is highly likely to be an airborne infectious disease.
Suvanand Sahu, Deputy Executive Director, of Stop TB Partnership, said, “The first phase in the Airborne Infection Defense Platform (AIDP) project will improve understanding by carrying out a landscape assessment across 10 ASEAN countries. This will outline the current capacities of each country to respond to TB and future airborne pandemics and recommend actions to achieve better pandemic preparedness.
Following this, our second phase will support community-based and primary healthcare activities and initiatives to strengthen the preparedness capacity of TB responses across ASEAN to better address airborne respiratory infections or pandemics. We would like to thank USAID for their continued commitment to tackling TB around the world, particularly in the ASEAN region, whose efforts have culminated in AIDP. We would also like to thank the Govt. of Lao PDR for their leadership in convening the first meeting on AIDP.”
