Singapore's One Health Plan Puts Institutions in Charge

Singapore launched the Asia Pacific One Health Initiative on Nov. 3, an institution-led effort to link human, wildlife and environmental health data in the name of detecting infectious disease threats earlier. The platform will bring regional partners, experts and institutions together, while surveillance systems that often operate separately leave information fragmented across institutions and borders.

The initiative is backed by Temasek Foundation, Gates Foundation and the Health for Human Potential Community by the Philanthropy Asia Alliance. Its stated work includes predictive modelling, integrated surveillance and cross-border scientific research. The launch describes a coordinated institutional network; it identifies no community-run decision-making structure.

Who Connects the Signals

Leo Yee-Sin, an infectious diseases specialist and APOHI co-lead, said Singapore needs to connect more effectively with the region on existing and emerging threats. She is senior advisor and senior consultant at Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory and led teams through outbreaks in Singapore, including SARS in 2003 and Covid-19 from 2020 to 2022.

During SARS, Leo said, communication between countries, institutions and experts was limited. She said she was fortunate to connect with Joseph Sung, then the chairman of the Department of Medicine and Therapeutics at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Hong Kong, where the outbreak hit severely.

Reflecting on Covid-19, Leo said the world was more connected and networks already existed, creating opportunities to share information from Singapore, the region and the world. That exchange helped direct attention toward research into a new pathogen, she said. The contrast in her account is stark: when information networks exist, researchers can share what they’re seeing; when they don’t, people working across borders face gaps in communication.

Ian Cheong, senior principal investigator at Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory and another APOHI co-lead, named coordination over human, animal and environmental data as a central challenge. He said researchers would need to collect data and correlate it across fields so patterns become visible when information is no longer siloed. Making that happen, he said, would require relationships and willingness among parties across borders and disciplines.

A Regional Study on Borneo

APOHI’s first regional programme studies monkey malaria in Borneo. A team led by spatial epidemiologist Kimberly Fornace is identifying potential macaque hotspots where a parasite carried by monkeys could spread to humans. Transmission can happen when a mosquito feeds on an infected macaque and then bites a person.

Researchers and institutions from Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei are involved. The project aims to test cross-border data sharing, joint analysis and coordinated action, and to show how integrated surveillance and predictive modelling can clarify transmission risks. Lessons are intended to inform later work on other infectious disease threats, in line with participating countries’ priorities.

Fornace said changing forest and land-use patterns affect how people, wildlife and mosquitoes interact. Extreme haze during El Nino can coincide with fewer human cases, she said, while fires that cause haze can create mosquito habitats in burnt areas. When rain returns to those habitats a year later, they can support mosquitoes and higher malaria cases, she said.

Forest edges close to settlements are places where mosquito breeding sites, macaques and human movement meet, Fornace said. Road expansion and extending settlements can increase those interfaces. She said her team has been working with partners in Indonesia to develop surveillance and understand the risks.

The Institution’s Promise

Over the next 10 years, APOHI aims to advance surveillance, predictive intelligence and cross-border research. Ng Boon Heong, executive director and chief executive officer of Temasek Foundation, said emerging diseases are still often first detected through human patients because warning signs in animals and the environment aren’t brought together. Through APOHI, he said, partners can connect those signals and build an earlier warning capability.