JICS Presented the ASEAN Stockpile Project at the ASEAN Senior Officials Meeting on Health Development

December 16, 2013

The 8th ASEAN Senior Officials Meeting was convened in Singapore from 26 October to 28 October 2013 with approximately 100 participants including senior officials of ministries of health of the ASEAN Member States and officials from the ASEAN Secretariat, the World Health Organization (WHO) and other UN agencies. In an open session of the meeting, JICS made a presentation on the Project for the Stockpile of Tamiflu and PPE^*1 against Potential Pandemic Influenza under the Japan-ASEAN Integration Fund (JAIF) at the request of the ASEAN Secretariat. JICS reported the background and achievements of the project, in which JICS had been involved since April 2006. The questions JICS received from participants after the presentation demonstrated their keen interest in the project.

Around the time when the project began, highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza was posing global threat, and Southeast Asia in particular was considered a region of highest risk for human-to-human transmission of the virus in the world. The project was established with the aim of supporting the ASEAN region facing this growing threat. The project procured a total of 1,000,000 courses of antiviral drugs and PPE such as masks and isolation gowns for 700,000 persons, a half of which were stored in Singapore as regional stockpile and the other half were prepositioned in the 10 ASEAN Member States. The purpose of stockpiling was to utilise the antiviral drugs and the PPE in a rapid containment^*2 operation which is to be conducted when human-to-human transmission with pandemic^*3 potential is confirmed in the ASEAN region. JICS, as the ASEAN Secretariat's agent, was in charge of the procurement and management of the stockpile. In addition, JICS had a significant role to play in urgently transporting the stockpiled items with cooperation of the ASEAN Secretariat and the ministry of health of each ASEAN Member State under the instruction of the WHO Western Pacific Regional Office (WPRO) in the event of a rapid containment operation.

Along with stockpiling, another important pillar of the project was capacity building for rapid containment. Providing the ASEAN Member States with workshops and exercises, the project contributed to fostering the Member States' understanding of rapid containment and enhancing their preparedness for and response to pandemic influenza in the ASEAN region. The achievements the project has made are expected to further strengthen pandemic influenza planning throughout the region.

The emergency transportation arrangement of the stockpile for rapid containment and the coordination with the ASEAN Secretariat, WPRO and the ministries of health, which the project has established, have been carried on into the other stockpile project. In the Project for Stockpiling of Antiviral Drugs and PPE for Rapid Containment of Pandemic Influenza under the Japan Trust Fund at the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF), antiviral drugs and PPE for 500,000 persons are stockpiled in Singapore. JICS will urgently mobilise them if and when a rapid containment operation is carried out.

JICS is determined to properly manage the stockpile, not to mention maintaining the collaborative relationships with the project counterparts JICS has developed, in order to respond promptly and adequately to an emergency situation.

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