More than 50 civilian and military health leaders from Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Germany and the United States will attend the four-day event to address health challenges facing the participant nations. Invited participants will include senior military and civilian experts in the fields of emergency and disaster medicine, military preventive medicine and public health.

The workshop was organized by Uzbekistan’s Ministries of Defense and Health, the United States Central Command Command Surgeon’s office, and the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies.

Previous regional health security workshops were held in 2008 and 2009, with a focus on the need for regional communication and cooperation to address health challenges. This conference will address military preventive medicine/force health protection; disaster medicine – specifically the development of disaster and emergency medical systems and post-disaster mental health care; and emerging infectious diseases, such as influenza, with a specific focus on best practices and World Health Organization International Health Regulations (IHR) and challenges to meeting IHR requirements.