Several Taiwan CDC experts were invited to attend the “Asia-Pacific Region Hand-foot-and-mouth Disease Seminar” held in Singapore in late August 2008.Representatives from many countries worldwide took this opportunity to exchange thoughts and work experiences in hand-foot-and-mouth disease control and diagnosis with one another during the event and the participants also reached a resolution at the end of the meeting.In order to reinforce international collaboration in this region on enterovirus prevention and control, the participating countries agreed to put emphasis on the following two items: (1) engaging in the research and development of fast enterovirus diagnostic tests as quickly as possible to cope with clinical and epidemiological demands; (2) each country should share with the rest information of epidemic outbreaks, viral genome sequences, relevant resources like research findings and usable diagnostic test kits.At the seminar, a Coxsackievirus A IFA Typing Kit SET Ι, a test kit developed by Taiwan CDC to classify enteroviruses by fluorescent antibody technique, received enthusiastic discussion and universal acclaim from the participating countries.
There are many serotypes of enterovirus and the symptoms caused by each serotype are not quite the same.Each year enterovirus serotypes result in infections and epidemics of various severities in Asian countries, including Taiwan.However, having been restricted by the inadequacy of commercially available test kits, infections of many enterovirus types are not easily identified in early stage.With this fact in mind, finding ways to speed up virus examination and typing in order to facilitate early diagnosis and treatment has long been one of the main focuses of Taiwan CDC’s research efforts in enterovirus prevention and control, and the research and development of an appropriate test kit has been an emphatic goal of the research and development team at its Kunyang Laboratories.
When the said enterovirus test kit newly developed by Taiwan CDC was introduced at the seminar, it instantaneously won popular acclaim.Many countries, including Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, India, and Mainland China, have sent enquiries to Taiwan CDC requesting for test kit information and samples.For the purpose of enhancing international data exchange and cooperation, Taiwan CDC has agreed to provide the test kit to all countries requesting for it without any charges.This generous gesture and move certainly turns a new page in the history of well-meant joint efforts in enterovirus control by the world community.