The Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) participated in an international conference, the ‘6th Meeting of the Collaborative Arrangement for the Prevention and Management of Public Health Events in Civil Aviation Asia Pacific Project (CAPSCA-AP)’, 22-25 April 2013, in Manila, the Philippines. The conference brought together public health experts and representative from the aviation sector.
It was hosted by the Civil Aviation Authority Philippines and coordinated by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). ASEF was invited to share the strategies developed on pandemic and public health emergencies in the passenger air transport sector. These strategies were developed through a multi-sector workshop organised by the ASEF Public Health Network (in December 2011 in Budapest, Hungary,).
Ms Sunkyoung LEE, ASEF’s Project Manager for Public Health, presented the strategies, which help strengthen the civil aviation sector’s preparedness for public health emergencies. The strategies recommend ensuring reliable media output on public health emergencies through regular and trusted communication channels, and strengthening surveillance and response mechanisms with a comprehensive system to process and verify key data.
Organisers encouraged the aviation sector participants to use the ASEF Public Health Network‘s future scenarios and recommendations to strengthen cooperation and preparedness planning for public health emergencies.