GARD Symposium for Eastern European countries
23 - 24 March 2007
Introduction
The GARD Symposium for Eastern European countries was organized from 23 - 24 March 2007 by the National Institute of Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases under the auspices of Professor Zbigniew Religa, Minister of Health, Poland.
Purpose of the Symposium
The purpose of the Symposium was to explore the possible contribution of the Global Alliance against Chronic Respiratory Diseases to the surveillance, prevention and control of chronic respiratory diseases in Eastern European countries. In particular, the approach of building Alliances against Chronic Respiratory Diseases at country level was proposed to the participants for their consideration.
Participants
Representatives of the following countries were present: Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, the Russian Federation and Slovakia. Representatives from Belarus, Serbia, Slovenia and Ukraine also expressed their interest in participating, but were unable to attend the meeting.