An IHR assessment mission took place in Saudi Arabia from 22 to 26 October 2011. The main objective of the mission was to assist the national IHR focal point, undersecretary for public health, general directorate for prevention of parasitic and infectious diseases, Ministry of Health, Saudi Arabia, in establishing an effective communication mechanism with all partners involved in IHR implementation, thus strengthening the coordination and response capacities to public health events that might be of national, regional and international concern.
The workshop tackled all subjects of IHR (2005) in Arabic. Sessions included: introduction to IHR (2005), situation analysis of IHR (2005) implementation in Saudi Arabia, building capacities for surveillance and response as per Annex 1 A of IHR (2005), IHR (2005) implementation at points of entry, risk communication and IHR (2005), Annex 2 of the Regulations and laboratory capacities under IHR (2005).
