The World Health Organization (WHO) will collaborate with the government of Japan to fortify Egypt's emergency health response to epidemic-prone diseases, by enhancing its disease surveillance system.

The project will start in the third quarter of 2019 and finish by the first quarter of 2020.

The main goal is to train more than 100 health staff members in 27 governorates; a process which will see the collaboration of other ministries including the ministries of agriculture, health and population, and environment.

In a statement released by the UN office in Egypt, Dr Jean Jabbour, WHO representative in Egypt stated: "This partnership with Japan is a milestone in supporting public health programs, including rapid response to epidemic-prone diseases through supporting diagnosis and surveillance. Identifying the appropriate partner is a key.”

The WHO will provide training and technical support to healthcare stakeholders, while the Japanese counterparts will support capacity building for the national surveillance system for outbreak investigation and rapid response measures.

In a statement released by the Ambassador of Japan to Egypt, Masaki Noke stressed that improving the healthcare system through capacity-building is important in the context of 'Universal Health Coverage,' which will be one of the key themes of two summits in Japan; first the G20 in June, and then the TICAD7(7th Tokyo International Conference on African Development) in August.

Egypt's national action plans to prevent and control the spread of the Ebola virus, pandemic influenza, avian influenza, and dengue fever are high priority, and the proposed project that assists in achieving this target through training of surveillance officers and rapid response teams align with these plans.

The government of Japan will present a financial support of $80,000 to help implement this project as part of an overarching Eastern Mediterranean region one.