The 57th WHO Eastern Mediterranean regional meeting opened Sunday in Cairo, Egypt, the Emirates News Agency reports (10/2).

WHO Director-General Margaret Chan presided over a session at the meeting along with Hussein Gezairy, director for WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean region, the Kuwait Times reports. Twenty-two health ministers from countries in the region are attending the four-day meeting (10/4).

The health experts will focus on major health issues affecting the countries, according to the Emirates News Agency. One working paper will focus on infection prevention in health facilities, according to Mahmood Fikri, executive director for health policies at the United Arab Emirate’s Ministry of Health. “The second paper discusses ways of improving the financing of health care facilities in the Eastern Mediterranean Region to avoid the current situation in which individuals suffer from the large paid amounts of money. Such an issue requires us to take the move towards rapid universal health care coverage through systemized strategies,” Fikri said (10/2). Other papers to be presented at the meeting focus on health systems in the region and the fight against polio, the Global Arab Network writes. Efforts to prevent smoking and other tobacco-related issues are also on the agenda (Shikhani, 10/4).

“Other issues under discussion are set to include combating and treating AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in these nations,” according to the Kuwait Times (10/4).