Taiwan’s delegation to the World Health Assembly (WHA) has arrived in Geneva, Switzerland to attend the 69th World Health Assembly. Apart from attending the plenary conference, Kuo Hsu-Sung, Director-General, and Lin Yong-Qing, medical officer of the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control (Taiwan CDC), will join Committee A for a discussion of technical issues, sharing our experiences in epidemic control and expressing our wish to be actively involved in the WHA Contingency Plan to assist the international community. 
In response to the WHA’s plan to build a global health contingency workforce and set up global epidemic and disaster emergency medical teams, the Taiwan CDC will provide suggestions to the committee and share previous experiences in helping to control the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, assisting with disaster relief after the Nepal earthquake, and conducting epidemic prevention on the Zika virus, to show our capability and intention to provide international assistance. 
In addition, the Taiwan CDC will share information that includes this year’s influenza outbreak and our Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) in the second half of the year, our implementation of the International Health Regulations (IHR), hepatitis B vaccination program, antibiotic stewardship, and our achievements in promoting hand hygiene at medical institutions. 
The Taiwan CDC will also present professional points of view and suggestions on the WHA restructuring in response to large-scale emergencies, the Ebola epidemic in 2014, the Global Vaccine Action Plan (GVAP), and the implementation of the draft 2016-2021 Global Health Sector Strategies for HIV, viral hepatitis and STIs (GHSS). 
Since it first attended the World Health Assembly in 2009, the Taiwan CDC has sent delegations to the conference every year and has so far made suggestions regarding the issue of infectious diseases 42 times. Its previous suggestion concerning the GHSS strategy that emphasizes cost-effectiveness and sustainable funding of the intervention measures has been included by the WHA in the GHSS draft. 
As part of the IHR operating mechanism since 2009, Taiwan has now upgraded its 9 major air and sea ports to international standards on the detection and control of infectious diseases. The Taiwan CDC has also set up direct connections with the WHA, filing international reports via the channel on major domestic public health incidents, including the H1N1 influenza, dengue fever, Taiwan’s first H7N9 case and the import of the Zika virus, as well as receiving the latest epidemic information from overseas. 
In recent years, the Taiwan CDC has sent medical officers to epidemic areas many times, and organized international workshops on the control of Ebola, MERS-CoV, dengue fever and the Zika virus, moving from being a passive receiver towards being an active provider of international assistance. The Taiwan CDC enthusiastically seeks to participate in international cooperation, generously sharing Taiwan’s experiences in epidemic control in the World Health Assembly this year and pragmatically joining in the global war on epidemics.