Viet Nam Major Overseas Programme Core Grant Renewal 2010-2015.

Half the world’s population lives within a four-hour flight of Vietnam, alongside three-quarters of the world’s poultry, making the region a global epicentre for emerging infectious diseases and drug-resistant pathogens. This matters because Asia is undergoing unprecedented social and environmental change, which is reshaping disease patterns in unpredictable ways. New zoonotic diseases—those jumping from animals to humans—are appearing more frequently, and drug resistance is rising faster here than anywhere else. The existing research infrastructure in Vietnam, built through a long-standing collaboration with the Wellcome Trust, is uniquely positioned to monitor and respond to these threats. If this work succeeds, it will strengthen the region’s ability to detect and contain outbreaks before they become global crises. It will also train a new generation of Asian clinicians and scientists, building local expertise that can sustain health security long after the grant ends. The programme integrates human and animal health research, recognising that many emerging diseases cross species boundaries. This is not a project with an immediate consumer product or medical device—it is a fundamental investment in surveillance, capacity, and preparedness that could quietly prevent the next pandemic from taking hold.