- SAARC members states have agreed to conduct a regional meeting to finalise the strategy and action plan to eliminate the threats and harmful impact of communicable diseases on health and socio economic development in the region. This was one of the recommendations made by the SAARC expert group during their two-day meeting in Paro from July 7-8 to develop the SAARC regional strategy on communicable diseases. With a goal to safeguard and improve the health of SAARC region through regional cooperation and development of effective partnerships, health experts from the region recommended drafting the regional communicable disease strategy in line with the outline developed in the expert group meeting within six months by the recruited consultant. They also recommended establishing a regional coordinating mechanism to oversee the implementation of the strategy and conduct periodic meetings to review progress. After discussing the status of communicable diseases in their respective countries, the Expert group came up with some recommendations, one of which being that the SAARC secretariat should liaise with technical partners in the process of development and implementation of the strategy and also consider the concept of "One World One Health' while developing the strategy. They also recommended the need to establish an implementation unit in the SAARC secretariat and to have regular consultation and advocacy at the regional level. The meeting was organised by the department of public health with funds from the SAARC secretariat. By Gyeltshen