The WHO Regional Office for South-East Asia organized a side event at the 79th Session of the WHO Regional Committee for South-East Asia (SEAR), in collaboration with the Ministries of Health of Bangladesh, Maldives, and Sri Lanka, the International Vaccine Institute (IVI), and The Hong Kong Jockey Club Global Health Institute (HKJC-GHI). The event drew more than 80 in-person participants, including RC delegations and immunization programme stakeholders from host country Timor-Leste, alongside over 50 virtual participants.
The inaugural session opened with welcome remarks by Dr Rijal, Director, Department of Health Promotion, Disease Prevention and Control, WHO SEARO, followed by video remarks from Dr Jerome H. Kim, Director General of IVI, and a keynote address by the Officer-in-Charge, WHO South-East Asia, Dr Nilesh Buddha. The session conveyed a consistent message: while the Region has achieved remarkable immunization gains, these gains remain fragile, and sustained evidence-led vigilance is essential to protect them.
The high-level panel discussion, co-moderated by Dr Vinod Bura from WHO SEARO and Dr Frank Konings from HKJC-GHI, presented the critical paradox - despite the Region's strong overall immunization coverage, VPD outbreaks continue to occur. Evidence presented showed that the accumulation of zero-dose and partially vaccinated children over successive years — even amid high annual coverage — leaves growing pockets of the population susceptible, creating conditions where a single case can ignite an outbreak. Country experiences from Bangladesh, Maldives, and Sri Lanka highlighted the role of surveillance, rapid response, cross-border collaboration, and community engagement in detecting and containing outbreaks — particularly as disease importation across borders remains a persistent risk even for countries that have sustained elimination — while IVI emphasized embedding research within routine systems to generate real-time evidence ahead of outbreaks rather than after them.
A particular highlight was the Ministerial Remarks. H.E. Geela Ali, Minister of Health, Family and Welfare, Maldives, cautioned that immunization success must never breed complacency and also cited climate change and population mobility as emerging risks and called for stronger surveillance, equity-focused outreach, and regional cooperation. Dr Anil Jasinghe, Secretary, Ministry of Health and Mass Media, Sri Lanka, reframed outbreak "failure": in an elimination setting, an imported case is expected, not a failure — the true test is preventing sustained local transmission, requiring 95%+ coverage, sensitive surveillance, and rapid, genomically-informed response. While Bangladesh highlighted typhoid's continuing toll on hundreds of thousands of children, and the Typhoid Conjugate Vaccine's rollout to counter it and drug resistance.
A memorable moment came when Heads of Delegation, senior officials from WHO including Country Representatives joined for a group photograph depicting the "flattening of the curve" — a visual reminder that sustained investment and evidence-informed preparedness can prevent VPD outbreaks before they ever begin to rise, thus transforming epidemiological curve into a flat line.
The event concluded with closing remarks from Dr Kate O'Brien, Director of IVB at WHO Headquarters, and from Dr Nevio da Costa Sarmento, Director General of Scientific & Technical Affairs, National Institute of Public Health, Timor-Leste (INSPTL). Dr O'Brien reaffirmed the importance of science and evidence in guiding the Region's immunization agenda. Both reaffirmed continued collaborations to protect the Region's hard-won immunization gains.