What will be the results of the Sharm El Sheikh?

I have finally found a website where they've posted all the presentations from the 6th International Ministerial Conferenceon Avian and Pandemic Influenza in Sharm El Sheikh, including the presentation from our own Dr. Zeinab!

http://www.fao.org/avianflu/en/conferences/sharm_2008.html

David Nabarro's opening address layed out three priorities:
"1. Ensure that the world is ready to cope with diseases that can trigger a pandemic or
other surprising health events
2. Sustain efforts to control HPAI, especially in poultry; and – eventually – to
eradicate it
3. Initiate longer term action in response to infectious diseases that emerge at the
interface between animals and humans, within different ecosystems, that are
capable of causing severe damage and affecting livelihoods"

These are essentially CARE's strategic focus areas as well, with our efforts being focused on effective models at the community level that contribute to these goals. The third goal is still the most abstract but an important turning point as we start to achieve some results in controlling the virus - we have to build long term systems to detect and prevent emerging infectious diseases early on.

This is one of the main reasons CARE is focused on building effective models of community-based surveillance rather than just focusing on increasing awareness of the current H5N1 risk. The surveillance models that we pilot can be effective for identifying events of public health significance from a broad category of threats.

Unfortunately some of the links to the documents at the bottom of the web page are not working. I'm especially interested in reading "Contributing to One World, One Health " which is the joint document from FAO, WHO, UNICEF and WB outlining the new strategy for emerging infectious diseases. Another document I have a copy of myself but cannot access online, Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza and beyond: the FAO response, is a good read as well. I'll continue to check back and let you know when these links are working again