ASEAN Minister Of Health Agrees To Form ACPHEED To Face Future Pandemic

BADUNG - Ministers of health throughout ASEAN approved the establishment of the ASEAN Center for Public Health Emergencies and Emerging Diseases (ACPHEED) as a collaborative center for ASEAN to deal with extraordinary events (KLB) and pandemics in the future.

"There will be three pillars of ACPHEED, surveillance or detection, response and risk management," said Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin when delivering a press statement after chairing the 15th ASEAN Health Ministers Meeting in Nusa Dua, Badung, Bali, reported by Antara, Saturday, May 14. .

Budi said the pillar would be supported by three ASEAN representative countries namely Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia to work together under one ACPHEED umbrella to deal with the potential for outbreaks.

"There will be a collaboration of three countries, each of which will build its office in their country for the three existing pillars," he said.

The working principle of ACPHEED is generally similar to that of the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). "In addition to disease emergencies, there is also extraordinary event risk management," he said

According to Budi, every ASEAN country has the right to fill the three existing offices through the spirit of togetherness to collaborate.

"For example, Indonesia takes the role of surveillance and early detection, later the office can be in Indonesia, but people from Thailand, Malaysia or Singapore can have offices there to be able to carry out integrated detection of potential outbreaks in ASEAN," he said.

Budi, who also serves as the Chief Minister of Health of ASEAN, said that ACPHEED is a solution to overcome the problems of various health protocols in each ASEAN member country.

"Health experts say that this cannot be handled differently, it must be treated healthily as the same epidemiological entity. So the health protocols must be harmonized," he said.

Uniform health protocols among ASEAN countries, said Budi, could adopt provisions similar to the Enforcement of Restrictions on Community Activities (PPKM) in Indonesia.

"ASEAN health protocols which were previously separate, we will synergize later. Yes, if the case has dropped significantly in the country, the relaxation process will be higher than in other countries. Same as PPKM in every province," he said.