SINGAPORE – A newly launched academic think-tank, the Asia Centre for Health Security (ACHS), aims to prepare Asia for current and emerging biological threats, as well as improve health security in the region.
“The focus includes all manner of catastrophic biological threats, rather than just zoonoses. So laboratory biosafety and deliberately released or man-made biological agents are also a part of our work,” said the centre’s director, Professor Hsu Li Yang.
“Rather than hardcore biomedical science and technology, we work on health systems, global health law and regulations, and global relations where it pertains to health security issues.”
Professor Hsu is also the vice-dean of Global Health at the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health at the National University of Singapore, where the new centre is primarily based.
Established with the help of generous philanthropic funding, ACHS is steered by a multidisciplinary team with expertise in areas from public health and clinical practice to global health law and policymaking. It will work closely with the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in areas such as research and training.
The launch, held at the One Farrer Hotel on April 17, was attended by Adjunct Professor Derrick Heng, deputy director-general of health (public health) at the Ministry of Health.
“ACHS would be a useful complement to the evolving public health ecosystem in Singapore and the region’s push for improved health security,” Prof Heng said in his speech.
Following the Covid-19 pandemic, Singapore has started to take the necessary steps to fortify its readiness against future infectious disease outbreaks, which are not a matter of if, but when, he said.
These steps include the setting up of the Communicable Diseases Agency (CDA) – announced by Health Minister Ong Ye Kung on March 21 – which will allow the Government to quickly respond to disease outbreaks as one concerted public health effort, he added.
In 2022, Singapore strengthened its pandemic research capabilities for developing tools, methods and products to respond to future disease threats with the launch of the Programme for Research in Epidemic Preparedness and Response.
In the same year, the Duke-NUS Medical School set up the Centre for Outbreak Preparedness to perform regional surveillance of pathogens with pandemic potential.
When the Covid-19 pandemic started, everyone saw how fragile preparedness was around the world, but there are more deadly viruses out there that are not yet capable of human-to-human transmission, said Professor Tom Inglesby, director of the Johns Hopkins Centre for Health Security at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the US.
ACHS’ launch was held in conjunction with the South-east Asia Strategic Multilateral Biosecurity Dialogue, a regional health security meeting that started in 2014, hosted by the US-based centre.