Public Health Emergencies

Digital health transformation offers a promising solution to meet the increasing demand for high-quality healthcare services while addressing rising healthcare costs in ASEAN. Currently, there is a lack of uniformity in digital health readiness among ASEAN Member States, including variations in legislative products, digital product standards, infrastructure readiness, and digital literacy. To advance digital health in the region, efforts must enforce enabling factors and address challenging aspects within ASEAN through standardizing and strengthening the regulatory framework, enhancing digital literacy and infrastructure, standardizing the quality and interoperability of digital applications, and fostering multi-sectoral collaboration through collaborative platforms.

Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are the leading causes of mortality in the ASEAN region. In ASEAN, the major NCDs are cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases, and mental disorders, which are driven primarily by tobacco use, alcohol consumption, physical inactivity, and unhealthy diets. Moreover, the ASEAN region grapples with a triple burden of malnutrition, with both low and middle-income countries and rapidly growing nations experiencing overweight issues, micronutrient deficiencies, and persistent undernutrition. Despite ASEAN efforts on promoting healthy lifestyle, policy gap analysis reveals that fragmented interventions and regulatory rollouts are insufficient. Thus, ASEAN must transition towards designing healthy cities that prioritise health in development frameworks and integrate health promotion into national strategic plans, ensuring a comprehensive approach to addressing health risks.

Human-induced activities, such as unsustainable economic development, exacerbate climate change, leading to increased threats such as rising temperatures that adversely affect health outcomes and disrupt healthcare systems. Given ASEAN's high and uneven vulnerability to climate-related hazards, it is imperative for the region to prepare for these escalating threats by establishing climate-resilient health systems.

To enhance regional food safety in ASEAN, it is imperative to continually develop policies that adapt to the drivers of food safety and promote harmonisation among Member States through the adoption of standards established by the Codex Alimentarius Commission, ensuring consistency and alignment across the region. This effort should be complemented by improving water, sanitation, and hygiene infrastructure in traditional markets and mainstreaming food safety certification.