The WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean supports operational research projects in the area of communicable diseases. A main feature of this research activity is the active collaboration between the control programs of the ministries of health and researchers from academic institutions. Together they target critical national health problems by turning them into research priorities and devising solutions.This publication summarizes the outcomes of two rounds of the Small Grants Scheme for operational research in tropical and other communicable diseases during 2005 and 2006. It is the fourth issue in a series that is produced every biennium to disseminate research results to national control programs and the international scientific community. It is hoped that these research results will be translated into policy and practice, thereby achieving progress towards equity in health and avoiding the unnecessary waste of limited resources that would result from the duplication of research funding or the ineffective implementation of control measures. This publication is also a call for action: a plea that these recently produced results are utilized and implemented in order to address the challenges of communicable disease control.