Sustaining a Regional Emerging Infectious Disease Research Network: A Trust-Based Approach

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Category: APEIR Publication

Published: Friday, 25 January 2013 13:25

Authors: Pornpit Silkavute1 *, Dinh Xuan Tung2 and Pongpisut Jongudomsuk1

Institutions: 1 Health Systems Research Institute, Ministry of Public Health, Nonthaburi, Thailand; 2 National Institute of Animal Sciences, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development Hanoi, Vietnam

The Asia Partnership on Emerging Infectious Diseases Research (APEIR) was initiated in 2006 to promote regional collaboration in avian influenza research. In 2009, the partnership expanded its scope to include all emerging infectious diseases. APEIR partners include public health and animal researchers, officials and practitioners from Cambodia, China, Lao PDR, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. APEIR has accomplished several major achievements in three key areas of activity: (i) knowledge generation (i.e., through research); (ii) research capacity building (e.g., by developing high-quality research proposals, by planning and conducting joint research projects, by adopting a broader Ecohealth/OneHealth approach); and (iii) policy advocacy (e.g., by disseminating research results to policy makers). This paper describes these achievements, with a focus on the partnership’s five major areas of emerging infectious disease research: wild migratory birds, backyard poultry systems, socio-economic impact, policy analysis, and control measures. We highlight two case studies illustrating how the partnership’s research results are being used to inform policy. We also highlight lessons learned after five years of working hard to build our partnership and the value added by a multi-country, multi-sectoral, multi-disciplinary research partnership like APEIR. Keywords: APEIR; pandemic preparedness; multi-country; multi-sectoral; multi-disciplinary; trust-based research network; emerging infectious disease; policy.