Letter from the Editor

This year, the 53rd session of the Regional Committee for the Eastern Mediterranean will be held in Isfahan, Islamic Republic of Iran, 9-12 September. One of the key themes at this meeting will be preparedness and response to natural and man-made disasters and emergencies. Two of the items on the agenda exemplify this theme: a technical paper on the Regional strategy on preparedness and response for human pandemic influenza, the principal objective of which is to summarize the World Health Organization (WHO) global influenza preparedness plan and to outline the regional strategy for implementation, and the progress report on Emergency preparedness and response, which details the steps that have been taken towards the implementation of resolution EM/RC52/R.6 issued in September 2005.