BANGLADESH -- Partners across the Pacific, including Regional Health Command-Pacific, other service member components, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) met with Bangladesh participants from the military's Director General Medical Services office and the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP) in Bangladesh. The delegation gathered to plan a clinical laboratory and bio-preparedness subject matter expertise exchange (SMEE) on topics including laboratory biosafety and sample handling, emergency response protocols and military and civilian coordination.

During the May planning conference, subject matter experts focused on ways to generate increased readiness among all military participants, strengthen the partnership between the U.S. and Bangladesh, enhance scientific knowledge exchange in bio-preparedness, and support the Global Health Security Agenda's (GHSA) five-year country road map which focuses on increasing a country's capacity needed to prevent, detect, and respond to biological threats. The planning conference set the conditions for further expanded health engagements that would include table top and larger scale exercises.

The delegation was also provided an opportunity to visit the Bangladesh's Armed Forces Institute of Pathology and Combined Military Hospital, a key Infectious Disease Hospital, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare's Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control & Research and the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh.

The upcoming August 2017 SMEE is part of a health engagement series with numerous opportunities to build upon increasingly complex future events. The delegates from both countries are eager to support and share best practices that support the GHSA objectives and improve current capabilities.

Regional Health Command-Pacific is dedicated to the global health engagement mission in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region. The region is committed to developing capability, increasing capacity and fostering relationships with key medical stakeholders in the region.