In addition to the overwhelming and uncontrollable second wave of COVID-19 in India, the country is also dealing with an outbreak of mucormycosis, a deadly fungal infection, which is affecting thousands of COVID-19 patients. With the increasing number of cases of mucormycosis and a fatality rate of 50%, many Indian states and union territories have declared an epidemic of black fungus due to its unprecedented emergence, which has adversely affected the already debilitated health system of the country. The advent of the new fungal epidemic in the country is due to the overdosage, panic and injudicious use of corticosteroids among COVID-19 patients, as well as their pre-existing medical history of diabetes, given that India is the diabetes capital of the world. Thus, there is an urgent need to address this public health concern by having nationwide surveillance, diagnostic and management system of the disease, along with public awareness and education to combat the syndemic of COVID-19 and mucormycosis in the country.

Bangladesh, a low-middle-income country in South Asia is facing one of its worst public health emergencies due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The increase in the number of cases from the disease, since the second half of March 2021, can potentially cause the health system overload, and has, as one of the main reasons, the non-compliance with measures of social distance and the emergence of the variants of concern in the country. This increase in the contagion curve can also provide a favorable environment for the occurrence of more mutations in the structure and genome of the virus. Therefore, there is an urge to carry out genomic surveillance programs in order to identify, monitor and characterize these variants, and understand whether the vaccines currently used are effective against them.

The countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have been dealing with dengue outbreaks for decades, being one of the regions with high dengue infection cases globally. These outbreaks are happening on top of the COVID-19 pandemic that is causing havoc among these ten countries. Both infectious diseases have caused a tremendous burden for the countries in the region-from infection control to the economic impact. This increasing number of cases happened with the contribution of the disruption in the pathogen-host-vector relationship, caused by the change of human behaviour during the pandemic period, and aggravated by the implementation of lockdowns and social distancing policies. These had several consequences, including limiting the coverage of dengue preventive programs and delaying the medical management of both diseases due to co-infection and misdiagnosis. It is of utmost importance to maintain the awareness of the population of both diseases and to devise strategies on dengue vector control to properly address the infection with digitalization and remote surveillance.Similarly, critical triage algorithms and further research are also needed to address co-infection and misdiagnosis. Management of COVID-19 using vaccination also should be optimized to subside the pandemic.

for sharing their photos during their online classes and virtual clinical clerkship.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region is known to be a global hotspot to viral outbreaks because of many factors. To limit the impact of future outbreaks, it is crucial for the ASEAN governments to strengthen regional virology research capacity. The ASEAN governments have collaborated in several virology initiatives, with the most recent being the establishment of the ASEAN Regional Center for Public Health Emergencies and Emerging Diseases. However, several challenges, including technology disparities, nationalistic tendencies, and the lack of public acceptance toward virus sharing, need to be addressed to maximize the region’s collaboration potential in virology research. We recommend the governments to 1) prioritize the strengthening of research capacities; 2) develop stronger cooperation and possible centralization of efforts on top of national capacities; 3) develop an equitable and secure research framework; and 4) improve the public awareness regarding the importance of regional public health responses.