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Southeast Asian Nations Conduct Joint Exercise in Cambodia to Improve Flu Pandemic Response

Senior officials from the governments of Cambodia, China, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand — including officials from the ministries of health, foreign affairs, agriculture, tourism and security as well as representatives from the UN, UNICEF, UNSIC, UNOCHA and a regional institution — participated today and yesterday in the exercise, which they designed and ran in collaboration with health specialists from the RAND Corporation. The event was sponsored by the Nuclear Threat Initiative's Global Health and Security Initiative, with additional funding from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Rockefeller Foundation. The exercise is a component of the MBDS, which was developed with support from the Rockefeller Foundation.

MBDS Regional Pandemic Influenza Table Top Exercise 13-15 March 2007

"A disease outbreak on one continent can be on another in a day. In a global economy, national borders are no defense against the spread of disease," said former Senator Sam Nunn, co-chairman of the Nuclear Threat Initiative. "Finding gaps now in disease monitoring and control systems through this exercise will help us save lives in a real crisis."

"Poor countries and populations are the most vulnerable to the current avian flu outbreaks, and likely to suffer most in the event of human-to-human transmission," said Judith Rodin, President of the Rockefeller Foundation. "Our investments in this region have focused for the last several years on promoting greater inter-country collaboration in planning, surveillance and response."
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