ASEAN members sign agreement to boost dengue prevention

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Wed, 06/15/2011

Ten ASEAN members have agreed to a new action plan aimed at controlling the spread of Dengue Fever in the region.

The agreement was signed during an event held in connection with ASEAN Dengue Day, at the National Monument in Jakarta on Wednesday.

During the event, Indonesian Health Minister Endang Rahayu Sedyaningsih announced the Jakarta Call for Action on the Control and Prevention of Dengue, which was proposed to follow on from the ASEAN Strategic Framework on Health Development.

"It is estimated that worldwide 50 to 100 million people are infected with [dengue fever each year], and 20,000 of these cases result in death," she said.

Up to 75 percent of these incidents occurred in the Asia-Pacific region, showing that the region should take the lead in dengue fever control and prevention efforts, Endang said.

ASEAN members have already recognized dengue as a major communicable disease that poses a serious threat to health, she said.

"ASEAN leaders endorsed this in the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community Blueprint.”

The agreement calls upon stakeholders in the region to strengthen regional cooperation on dengue prevention, to combat the disease in sustainable ways, and promote inter-sectoral collaboration.

Conducting research on dengue vaccines was among projects proposed to improve dengue prevention in the region, she said.

A dengue vaccine is widely seen as the best way to prevent the disease from spreading.

France-based pharmaceutical company Sanofi Pasteur is currently running clinical trials of a dengue vaccine in several countries, including Indonesia.

The research, however, has been slow since the disease has four different viral strains. (lfr)