CDC’s Southeast Asia Regional Office

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The Southeast Asia region is home to more than 657 million people and consists of various CDC assets including the CDC regional office in Hanoi, Vietnam, and seven bilateral CDC country offices.

CDC investments in the region began with malaria technical assistance in the early 1950s. It continued with successful smallpox eradication efforts and led to the development of country offices throughout the region that have been instrumental in strengthening the public health workforce.

Countries throughout the region are utilizing health security systems strengthened through years of collaboration with CDC. This work includes data collection through established respiratory surveillance systems and deployment of trained epidemiologists, laboratorians, risk communicators, and public health emergency managers which were deployed to effectively respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The regional office works closely with seven bilateral country offices, CDC staff assigned to international organizations, headquarters-based programs, ministry counterparts and partners throughout the region to build core public health capacities and respond to public health threats. Apart from core bilateral partnerships with host government’s ministries and U.S. Embassy sections and agencies, CDC also works with several regional U.S. Government agencies, multilateral organizations, such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and non-state actors to implement public health programs. In addition to personnel in the region, subject matter experts at CDC headquarters in Atlanta, GA, provide technical support to these offices, as well as to partners across the region.

Key Areas of Focus

The Southeast Asia regional office’s activities reflect the agency-wide Global Health Strategy and are focused on responding to health threats by building core public health capacities in:

  • Antimicrobial resistance
  • Border health and migrant health
  • Disease elimination
  • Infectious diseases prevention and control
  • Laboratory systems
  • One Health
  • Pandemic preparedness and vaccine planning
  • Public health emergency management
  • Surveillance and response
  • Workforce development
Countries included in the region:
    • Brunei
    • Cambodia
    • Indonesia
    • Laos
    • Malaysia
    • Burma
    • Papua New Guinea
    • Philippines
    • Singapore
    • Thailand
    • Vietnam
Regional Goals

CDC and partners coordinate closely and work together on strategic areas that reflect the agency-wide Global Health Strategy and include coordinated partnerships, trained workforce, and prepared systems to achieve the following goals:

  • Goal 1: Enhance existing and develop new partnerships to advance health security priorities
  • Goal 2: Enhance and expand the public health workforce
  • Goal 3: Ensure the ability of governments in the region to effectively respond to public health emergencies
  • Goal 4: Enhance partners’ use of data to improve public health response and development of policy
  • Goal 5: Strengthen standardized surveillance systems to better understand disease trends and predict and mitigate public health threats
  • Goal 6: Promote science and innovation in public health
  • Goal 7: Strengthen public health laboratories
  • Goal 8: Improve the ability of countries in the region to decrease prevalence of vaccine preventable diseases
  • Goal 9: Work towards the elimination of disease of public health importance