On May 14-15, Novosibirsk will host an international conference to promote the cooperation of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization member states in combating infectious diseases

Russia, which is chairing the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in 2008-2009, chose cooperation in healthcare as the priority subject for its presidency, with a focus on establishing a common system to monitor infectious diseases and preventing epidemics.

As part of these efforts, it will hold an international conference on the cooperation of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization member states in combating infectious diseases in Novosibirsk on May 14-15.

The conference participants will discuss possible avenues of cooperation for the SCO member states.

The conference will be chaired by Gennady Onishchenko, Russia’s chief sanitary inspector, and will be attended by representatives of the leading research and other establishments responsible for preventing and combating infectious diseases from the SCO members and observer states.

In view of the high importance of combating infectious diseases in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the conference will also be attended by their representatives.
The conference will focus on:

infectious diseases in the SCO member states and adjacent countries;

national and international legislations on protection against epidemics;

prevention and treatment of grave infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, flu, tuberculosis and other epidemic prone diseases;

modern methods of monitoring and diagnosing infectious disease of animals and humans;

prevention of infectious diseases among immigrants and other acute issues of interstate border cooperation;

modern global biological threats posed by especially dangerous and other epidemic prone diseases;

prospects for cooperation within the SCO for preventing and combating dangerous epidemic prone infectious diseases through the use of specialized mobile groups.
The conference in Novosibirsk will be another step towards implementing Russia’s initiative of encouraging the cooperation of the SCO members and observer states in combating infectious diseases.

On November 26, 2008, Russia’s Rospotrebnadzor (Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Protection and Welfare) held a conference of the heads of the sanitary and epidemiological services of the SCO states in Moscow. Upon its completion, they adopted a joint statement reflecting their common stand on the main fields of cooperation in combating infectious diseases.

The conference in Novosibirsk is expected to discuss practical ways to implement the agreements reached at the Moscow conference.