DUSHANBE, December 4, Asia-Plus — Tajik specialists are attending a four-day workshop on pandemic influenza preparedness planning, staged by the regional Office for Europe of the World Health Organization (WHO), which opened in Copenhagen, Denmark today.
Press service of the Ministry of Health (MoH) said that Samariddin Aliyev, the head of the Republic Center for Sanitary and Epidemiological Supervision, and Navrouz Jaffarov, a chief specialist with the MoH department for sanitary supervision, are taking part in the workshop.
The workshop is continuation of efforts taken by the WHO Regional Office for Europe to support member countries to provide pandemic influenza preparedness, which includes both technical aspects and methodological and institutional approaches adopted for elaborating, adapting and updating the pandemic preparedness plans at national and sub-regional levels.
An influenza pandemic occurs when a new influenza virus appears against which the human population has no immunity, resulting in several, simultaneous epidemics worldwide with enormous numbers of deaths and illness. With the increase in global transport and communications, as well as urbanization and overcrowded conditions, epidemics due the new influenza virus are likely to quickly take hold around the world.
Along with representatives from Tajikistan the workshop participants include representatives from Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan.
