Marshall Center for Security Studies to hold health security workshop in Astana

GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN, Germany. February 27. KAZINFORM Health experts from across Central Asia and the U.S. will meet to explore the topic of health security at a workshop in Astana, Kazakhstan on March 2-5.

More than 40 civilian and military health leaders from Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Germany and the United States will attend the four-day event to discuss regional health issues pertaining to disaster relief and response scenarios and to encourage regional collaboration in addressing common challenges. The workshop was organized by Kazakhstan?s Ministry of Defense and the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies. Recommendations from the Central Asia Regional Health Security workshop held last year stressed the need for regional cooperation in the fields of disaster response and disaster management. This workshop is designed to address health issues in the wake of disasters and large scale accidents. The workshop will tackle five major themes within the greater construct of health security: Civilian-military health collaboration; disaster response; hazardous materials accidents; health challenges pertaining to disaster response and relief; and cooperative training with regional countries on disaster response and relief. The Marshall Center is a unique U.S. Department of Defense and German Ministry of Defense security and defense studies institute. More than 6,000 military and civilian officials from more than 100 nations have graduated from resident courses and more than 16,000 have attended more than 300 conferences discussing European and Central Asian security issues since the center was dedicated in 1993, Kazinform refers to the public Affairs Office of the US Embassy in Astana.