THE Southeast Asia Education Ministers Organization - Seameo - had been set up since 1966 and maintained a regional cooper-ation network to promote health and control tropical diseases and public health problems through education, training and re-search in tropical medicine and public health. The primary intent was to improve the lives of Southeast Asians and lives beyond, through health-related services.

The IMR - host Institute to Seameo Tropmed Malaysia. One of the four specialist centers of the Seameo Tropmed Network is Tropmed Malaysia - the Regional Center for Microbiology, Para-sitology and Entomology hosted in the Institute for Medical Re-search (IMR) located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. IMR is one of the research institutions networks under the National Institute of Health of the Ministry of Health, Malaysia. Its main function is to 'facilitate the strengthening of national and institutional capabili-ties in research and human resource development through train-ing and postgraduate degree programs, linkages, personnel ex-changes, scientific forums, technical consultant services, publica-tions and information dissemination.' (https://seameotropmednet work.org › malaysia vision) The same source lists the main functions of the Institute: '(1) carry out re-search for the prevention and control of diseases and on perti-nent health issues and problems in the country; (2) perform spe-cialized diagnostic services; (3) provide training in various special-ized fields; and (4) provide consultative and advisory services.' Host to Tropmed Malaysia, the IMR is 'organized into nine cen-ters: (1) Allergy and Immunology Research Center, (2) Cancer Re-search Center, (3) Cardiovascular, Diabetes and Nutrition Re-search Center, (4) Environmental Health Research Center, (5) Herbal Medicine Research Center, (6) Infectious Diseases Re-search Center, (7) Medical Resources Research Center, (8) Special-ized Diagnostics Center, and (9) Management Center.