SOUTH-EAST ASIA

Abstract

Southeast Asia (SEA) is the most densely populated area in the world and a global hotspot for the emergence of new infectious diseases and drug resistance. Reduced poverty in much of the region has reduced the prevalence of parasitic diseases, but the emergence and spread of artemisinin-resistant malaria and multidrug-resistant (MDR) TB, along with the widespread use of often poor-quality anti-infective drugs emanating from this region, all pose serious global risks. Socioeconomic factors, a tropical climate with vegetation ranging from paddy fields to scrublands and tropical jungle, abundant domestic animal reservoirs (such as pigs and poultry), as well as migration and urbanization leading to the encroachment of rural areas, all contribute to a wide and increasingly complex range of infectious diseases.