HHS Deputy Secretary Visits Jordan to Underscore Partnership in Health and Biotechnology

July 16, 2006 - Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Alex M. Azar II arrived in Amman on July 13 for a five-day visit to the Kingdom to discuss issues of mutual interest to Jordan and the United States regarding health, physical fitness, biotechnology, disease detection, and human services. Deputy Secretary Azar is the highest-ranking Arab-American in the U.S. government.

While in Jordan, Deputy Secretary Azar met with the Minister of Education, Dr. Khalid Toukan and the Minister of Health, Saeed Darwazah. He visited the Directorate of Disease Control of the Ministry of Health, where he observed the Jordan Field Epidemiology Training Program, supported by HHS and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Azar also discussed cooperative efforts to raise public awareness of early detection of cancer and the hazards of smoking with officials from the Jordanian Interfaith Coexistence Research Center.

During a ceremony held at the headquarters of the King Abdullah II Fund for Development (KAFD), Deputy Secretary Azar and the KAFD Chairman, His Excellency Faisal Fayez, signed a letter of intent to signal that HHS and the KAFD intend to cooperate to enhance the vision of his Majesty King Abdullah II to expand the scope and quality of medical sciences, improve patient care in the oncology field, and advance biotechnology research and development in Jordan through support to the King Hussein Cancer and Biotechnology Institute (KHCBI).

Accordingly, HHS intends to provide leadership, expertise, and technical assistance, including the establishment of a biomedical informatics infrastructure and a telecommunications link through the Cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid program of the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the HHS National Institutes of Health (NIH). This inter-connectivity between the KHCBI and the HHS/NIH/NCI informatics infrastructure is expected to further provide access for Jordanians to cancer literature, management information, and research web sites. The collaboration will also include developing the infrastructure and recruiting and training staff that are necessary to conduct biomedical research and clinical trials in Jordan.

Last revised: October 10, 2007