Summary of the Infectious Diseases and Disaster Response Conference in Abu Dhabi.

Due to the interconnectedness of the world today and the ease with which infectious diseases can spread globally, collaboration within and among countries around the world on pandemic planning and response is immensely important. One of the fi rst steps for pandemic planning involves identifying existing gaps in a nation's current plans, and examining previous outbreaks for lessons learned. To identify such gaps, the World Health Organization (WHO) created a framework with 5 main components for assessing disaster and pandemic planning and response: surveillance, healthcare response, public health intervention, communication, and command. 1 Assessing a country's current pandemic planning and response capability can be accomplished by examining each of the 5 aspects of the WHO framework. 1 The fi rst component is surveillance. Countries need a robust surveillance system to detect emerging infectious diseases or potential outbreaks. However, many countries may lack the capacity for such a system. In resource-limited settings or countries recovering from a disaster, foreign militaries can play a key role in disease surveillance. 2 Foreign militaries may have the capacity to support local civilian ministries of health in disease surveillance and reporting. Healthcare response focuses on ensuring that current hospital resources meet demands and that contingency plans exist for continuity of operations during an emergency. Public health intervention is important for preventing or containing the spread of disease. Strategic communication is also a fundamental part of disaster response and should occur pre-event, during the event, and during response and recovery phases. Finally, the incident command structure is an integral aspect of disaster response. Identifying roles and responsibilities of key staff and cross-training ahead of time will enable individuals to better respond in the event of a disaster. The WHO framework provides a structure to assess a country's pandemic response capabilities, but many countries around the world may lack capacity for effi cient and effective pandemic response. The Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center–Global Emerging Infections Surveillance and Response System (AFHSC-GEIS) partners with many countries around the world to build sustainable public health surveillance and laboratory capacities. 3 In addition to partnering with laboratories around the world, the AFHSC, in collaboration with the Center for Disaster and Humanitarian Assistance Medicine* (CDHAM) and the geographic com-batant commands, also works closely with partner nation militaries and local ministries to conduct training workshops and exercises on important topics such as infectious diseases and disaster response. hosted by the United Arab Emirates …