Health and Security in Southeast Asia: Effective Surveillance for Emerging Infectious Diseases in Cambodia and Indonesia

Thursday, September 23, 2010
12:00 PM - 1:30 PM
(Pacific)
Philippines Conference Room
Speaker: 
  • Sophal Ear

Emerging infectious diseases pose new international security threats because of the potential to inflict harm upon humans, crops, livestock, health infrastructure, and economies. H1N1’s impact on the Mexican economy in 2009, for example, has been estimated at almost 1% of Gross Domestic Product.

In this colloquium, Professor Ear will discuss his research on health and security in Southeast Asia, focusing on surveillance systems for emerging infectious disease. The experience of Cambodia and Indonesia demonstrates that the technical and human sides of surveillance systems are complementary inputs. Awareness of political, economic, and cultural issues is critical if policy-makers are to build more effective systems.