In response to these public health threats, the ASEAN Member States have developed a comprehensive set of mechanism, strategies and approaches, and together with the Plus Three countries (China, Japan and the Republic of Korea) have accumulated rich field-based experiences on managing infectious diseases. They have also developed effective strategies for disease prevention and control relevant to their own contexts and situations. However, the sharing of these good practices is still minimal across the region, partly because most of these strategies are not well-documented.

Through the initiative of the ASEAN Plus Three Emerging Infectious Diseases (EID) Programme of the ASEAN Secretariat, and within the framework of the Communication and Integration Strategy for Emerging Infectious Diseases, this publication is a collection of these good practices implemented by the ASEAN Ministers of Health in managing public health challenges at the national level. This publication would be the initial step towards a sustained proactive sharing of effective strategies that can be adapted based on individual country contexts.