Laos, Thailand, U.S. Officials Host Disease Surveillance Workshop
By Tech. Sgt. Kerry Jackson 13th Air Force Public Affairs
HICKAM AIR FORCE BASE, Hawaii -- In a cooperative effort to improve their ability to detect, respond to, and contain infectious diseases in the Asia-Pacific region, medical experts from Laos, Thailand and the United States participated in a four-day disease surveillance workshop in Laos June 6-9.
The conference was hosted by the 13th Air Force Surgeon General's Office of International Health, and the Lao National Avian and Human Influenza Coordinating Office. It provided 40 interagency medical specialists a forum to exchange ideas and lessons learned to collectively increase their capacity to effectively manage infectious diseases.
"Diseases, and especially pandemic diseases, do not recognize borders," said Maj. (Dr.) Wesley Palmer, an international health specialist from the 13th Air Force Surgeon General office here. "It is in the interest of all nations to work to improve public health capacity throughout the world to lessen the burden to humanity that severe disease pandemics can inflict."
The Lao Ministries of Defense and Health, the Royal Thai Army Medical Department and U.S. Army's Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Science, the Thai National Institute of Animal Health, the Thai Department of Livestock Development, and the U.S. Department of State also participated in the workshop.
This is the first time that the U.S. and Thai Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Science has collaborated in this capacity with 13th Air Force and the Lao Military Medical Department. It is also the first time that a disease surveillance workshop has been held for the Lao MMD.
The MMD and NAHICO have previously held cooperative workshops that focused on pandemic preparedness and were more broadly focused on outbreak response and consequence management, Doctor Palmer said.
The workshop comes as the World Health Organization upgrades the H1N1 influenza outbreak, that struck many countries around the global, to phase 6, the highest phase on its pandemic alert scale. Seventy-four countries and 27,737 people have reportedly contracted the virus, with 141 deaths being reported.
Dr. Bounlay Phommasack, the director of the Lao National Emerging Infectious Disease Coordinating office, said the workshops is a great opportunity for medical experts from provincial hospitals throughout Laos and U.S. Pacific Command to share their experiences and boost surveillance capacity and responses of the H1N1 virus.
Eighty percent of the workshop briefings were given in Lao and Thai, while two classes were presented in English, according to Doctor Palmer.
"The ability to conduct briefings in the local languages serve to immensely facilitate learning and interest in the topics and foster future cooperating efforts with the Lao Military Medical Department in improving their disease surveillance capacity," said Doctor Palmer.
"The workshop proved the importance in continuing to develop international Airmen," said Doctor Palmer. "We look forward to participating in more dialogue like this in the future."
The workshop was sponsored by U.S. Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center and the Department of Defense Global Emerging Infections Surveillance and Response Systems.
This article was originally published at: http://www.13af.pacaf.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123154737
(Posted June 19, 2009)