The past decade has seen the rise of many new diseases, and the re-emergence of others which were thought to have been brought under control. This is the combined result of the expansion of global trade and travel, the increases in populations of both humans and animals, and environmental changes. As a result, there should be an effective collaboration among different institutions in each country, and close international cooperation with different stakeholders. The MBDS (Mekong Basin Disease Surveillance) cooperation is a self-organized sub-regional network commenced in 2001. It is a collaboration effort among six Mekong Basin countries (and provinces of China), including Cambodia, Yunnan (and, since 2006, Guangxi) provinces of China, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. It aims to strengthen national and sub-regional capabilities in infectious disease surveillance and outbreak response, especially on 18 currently designated priority diseases, to rapidly and effectively control them.
MBDS proposed to establish a collaborative framework with Animal sector to integrate the event based surveillance, real time reporting, multidisciplinary research, and training for the control of cross-border transmission of dangerous infectious diseases.