Southeast Asian states today adopted a common strategy to fight deadly epidemics such as Sars and bird flu, which have cost the region hundreds of lives and billions of dollars over the past two years.

But Malaysian Health Minister Chua Soi Lek said details would only be released after approval by health ministers from China, Japan and South Korea, who are due to join the conference of the 10 member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) tomorrow.

"The joint-declaration of the Asean health ministers has been adopted. It is aimed to prevent the spread of epidemic diseases. Diseases like Sars and bird-flu do not respect international borders," he said.

Wilfrido Villacorta, deputy Asean secretary-general told AFP that with the adoption of the plan, Asean would be better prepared to deal with future outbreaks.

"A mechanism has been developed to have a surveillance system to detect and to respond quickly to outbreaks. Basically, we are now better prepared to reduce damage. This is what we want," he said.

Continuing trend

Earlier, the ministers were told that Asia faced the threat of more deadly epidemics such as Sars, which could have cost regional economies up to US$50 billion..

"New diseases like the bird flu and Sars have been emerging at the rate of one per year and the trend is certain to continue," said Malaysia's Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak.

He was opening a conference of health ministers from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), which aims to forge a common action plan against epidemics.

Najib said a recent survey showed the impact of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) so far on Asian economies was US$10.6 billion and could eventually total as much as US$50 billion.

He gave no details, but Sars devastated the region's vital travel and tourism industries when it killed nearly 800 people and infected more than 8,000 in more than 30 countries last year, mostly in Asia.

A year after Sars spread from China, the World Health Organisation has warned that the deadly disease, like the outbreak this year of bird flu, remained a "major area of concern" and pointed to wild animals as the probable source of Sars transmission.

Bird flu affected some 10 Asian nations, killed at least 23 people and led to the culling of millions of chickens.

Response mechanism

Najib said the epidemics had shown that pathogens jumped species barriers and that the high mobility of people in the region meant no country could insulate itself.

"The need to cooperate cannot be over emphasized. These diseases would not be the last of their kind to spread rapidly. The world it seems shall never be free from the threat of epidemics," he said.

A rapid and effective regional response mechanism would contribute to the ability to combat future outbreaks, he said.

With the theme "Health Without Frontiers", the health ministers plan to adopt a blueprint on coordinating their efforts over surveillance and emergency responses to health crises.

Health ministers from Singapore and Indonesia echoed Najib's fears and voiced support for a common plan of action.

"Asean went through a difficult period with Sars. At that time we had to improvise and see how to cooperate effectively," Singapore's Khaw Boon Wan told reporters.

"With the Sars crisis at the moment over, it is a good time to consolidate and institutionalise the various cooperation plans."

These could include information sharing, transparency over outbreaks and taking quick action to contain them, he said.

"Nature has a way to suprise us. Just as we were all geared up for winter Sars, instead we had the bird flu," he said.

Cooperative effort

Indonesia's Achmad Sujudi said Asean countries needed to ensure close cooperation.

"This committment from all countries is vital. We will have a common blueprint to follow after this meeting," he said.

Achmad said Indonesia still faced the threat of bird flu and the impact on its poultry industry had been significant.

On Friday, the 10 Asean members will be joined by their counterparts from China, Japan and South Korea in a first cooperative effort to tackle the region's health problems.

The ministers will also discuss efforts to reverse the spread of Aids in the region. - AFP