MAKATI City, Philippines – The Philippines and the U.S. will host a three-day table-top exercise (TTX) workshop made up of policy professionals. practitioners, security forces and health subject matter experts (SMEs) as part of the ASEAN Regional Forum's (ARF) Cross-Sectoral Workshop on Biological Preparedness and Response, Aug. 11-13.

This bio-preparedness exercise, hosted at the Intercontinental, is another step in an evolving partnership with participating nations that will help improve disaster and disease response preparedness, while enhancing relationships among all participants.

Led by officials from the Philippines and the U.S., the ARF Bio-Preparedness TTX workshop team aims to bring 26 nations and the European Union together to collaborate and build on previously established disaster response plans. For this year's exercise, they will be testing the guidelines from last year with the help of a 10-page bio-preparedness guide, created by the exercise team.

"This international security exchange builds on these countries' current infrastructure, and present a Reader's Digest version of what you would need, who you need to address, the references to look for, the websites you should use, the forms for sharing of information for when something happens," said John McCombs, Pacific Command representative.

Day one of the exercise with host military and civilian leaders from the pacific region and set the stage for information sharing on how to respond to infectious disease outbreaks and other bio-related threats. More than 150 participants will hear from top bio-preparedness experts who have firsthand knowledge of past outbreaks of diseases like Ebola, MERS, and SARS.

Day two will break down all participants into regional groups and react to scenario-based exercises testing and refining how leaders and practitioners response to simulated outbreaks in their respective regions of the pacific.

And finally, day three will feature each group presenting the outcomes of their response, discussing the next steps to planning, and how they will refine and implement their bio-programs.

"This event is focused on Asian senior leadership, and how leaders are providing the necessary tools, national and regional mechanisms for communities enabling information sharing when needed,"McCombs said.

Some other tools discussed will be the Pacific Disaster Center’s, “Pacific Disaster Aware” smart-phone application, which shows live alerts and up-to-the-minute information on what to do when disease outbreaks and other disasters occur.

In addition to refining their bio-preparedness templates, newly appointed Philippine Ambassador to Pakistan, Daniel Espiritu, says “Hopefully this event will not only help the participants learn the new processes, the new procedures and the new strategies of bio-preparedness, it will help them build new relationships, new networks and new friendships.”

As a co-chair for the event, the U.S. delegation to the ASEAN Forum Bio-Preparedness and Disaster Response TTX is made up representatives from Pacific Command, Pacific Air Forces, Marine Forces Pacific, U.S. Army Pacific, Defense Threat Reduction Agency, National Defense University and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.