Western Pacific
As defined by the Word Health Organization (WHO), the Western Pacific region (WHO/WPRO) comprises 27 countries stretching across the Pacific Ocean, from New Zealand to China and Japan.
There are large health challenges in many of these countries, usually related to economic development. Thus, per capita income ranges from $31,410 in Japan to $1,880 in the Solomon Islands, and life expectancy at birth ranges from 79 years (male) and 86 years (female) in Japan, to only 51 years (male) and 57 years (female) in Cambodia. There are also disparities in infant mortality rates (e.g., 143/1000 live births in Cambodia (twice that of the second highest countries, Laos and Papua New Guinea), but only 3/1000 live births in Singapore. Health in this region is also heavily influenced by the remoteness of many countries, as well as severe national disasters, including earthquakes, tsunamis, and rising sea levels.
Countries With NIAID-Funded Activities
Additional countries where NIAID is conducting and supporting research will continue to be added. However this information is not meant to be a complete list of NIAID research and NIAID-sponsored activities. It is intended to serve as an overview.
Research Focus
This region has a long tradition of NIAID collaboration on parasitic diseases, many of which are endemic. NIAID’s highest priorities for research in this region include HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis (TB):
- HIV/AIDS is increasing rapidly in several countries, including China. NIAID is performing HIV/AIDS research in many countries, particularly Australia, Japan, and Singapore (sites of the interleukin 2 (IL-2) trial), as well as research on the association of HIV/AIDS with TB in Cambodia, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam. These studies have been facilitated by NIAID agreements with the REDI Center in Singapore and the Chinese CDC.
- Approximately 35 percent of the population in this region is at risk of TB, and infection rates range from 510/100,000 in Cambodia and 293/100,000 in the Philippines to 6/100,000 in Australia. TB is an emerging focus of research in the Republic of Korea, especially by NIAID intramural scientists. The highest numbers of cases are in China (1.324 million). However, highly endemic persistence of TB across the region raises concern for the emergence of drug-resistant TB.
- Malaria is still endemic in Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, the Philippines, and China, although mortality rates have dropped significantly. Unfortunately, confounders such as counterfeit drugs are hindering progress. NIAID carries out malaria research (vaccines, drug resistance, antigenic variation) in Australia and Papua New Guinea, where NIAID has a large program in highland malaria.
Research in other parasitic diseases includes water-borne infections such as schistosomiasis, common in China and the Philippines, and amebiasis in Vietnam, leishmaniasis in Australia, and filariasis in Papua New Guinea. Viral diseases such as Nipah virus have recently caused outbreaks in this region, and NIAID supports research on this virus in Malaysia and Australia. Other viral diseases include dengue virus, for which research is progressing toward the development of a vaccine (Singapore, Australia). Vaccine development is also being pursued for hepatitis C, ebola, and West Nile viruses (Australia). NIAID is involved in a large collaborative study on pneumococcal vaccination in children in several countries, including Australia and Fiji, and NIAID supports research into immunology and immunologically related diseases such as asthma in China and Japan.
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