The necessity of continuous international cooperation for establishing the coronavirus disease 2019 diagnostic capacity despite the challenges of fighting the outbreak in home countries

Abstract

The importance of laboratory diagnostic capacity for effective infectious disease control has been widely recognized in recent years, but many of the countries still struggled to establish it when the newly discovered diseases was happened, such as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Even in the country that the laboratory system was highly evaluated by Global Health Security Index like Myanmar, support from external partners is essential to establish the diagnostic capacity for COVID-19. WHO and other contributors, including Japan, have been supporting the establishment of a diagnostic system for SARS-CoV-2 in response to the disease outbreak. The testing laboratory was established in Myanmar on February 20, 2020. The first confirmed diagnosis was reported on March 23, and 15 positive cases as of March 31. Since it is difficult to control the outbreak in a given country without controlling it in the neighboring countries, continuous international cooperation for establishing the coronavirus disease 2019 diagnostic capacity was crucial despite the challenges of fighting the outbreak in home countries.