Shri Charlakola Laxma Reddy, Honourable Minister for Health Medical and Family Welfare Minister of Telangana Inaugurates the 17th International Congress on Infectious Diseases (ICID), the world’s largest General Purpose Infectious Disease Meeting

The 17th International Congress on Infectious Diseases, a leading forum for infectious disease experts worldwide was inaugurated by Shri. Charlakola Laxma Reddy Garu, Honourable Minister for Health, Medical and Family Welfare, Government of Telangana. Also present on the occasion was Dr Soumya Swaminthan, Director General, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Professor Jonathan Cohen, Emeritus Professor in Infectious Diseases and President, ICID and Professor Ramanan Laxminarayan Distinguished Professor, Public Health Foundation of India and Chair, National Organizing Committee, 17TH ICID and Dr Rana Hajjeh, General Secretary of the International Society for Infectious Diseases.

ICID is being organised by the International Society for Infectious Diseases (ISID) in collaboration with the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) and partner organizations and with support from the Government of Telangana, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India.

The three day meeting which will be held from will be held from March 2-5, 2016 and will feature leading international infectious disease experts, and is attended by over 2000 clinicians, microbiologists, biomedical scientists, public health specialists, and epidemiologists from all over the world.

Professor Jonathan Cohen, Emeritus Professor in Infectious Diseases and President of the International Society for Infectious Diseases said “I am absolutely delighted that this meeting is being held in Hyderabad, the first time that the society has held our meeting in India. Far from being a diminishing threat, as some had predicted, infectious diseases and the problems of antimicrobial resistance are as challenging now as they have ever been. The meeting will provide an outstanding opportunity for colleagues from around the world to share their experience and learn from our internationally respected faculty”.

Talking about the 17^th ICID, Professor Ramanan Laxminarayan, Distinguished Professor, PHFI and Chair of the National Organising Committee (NOC) of the 17^th ICID said, “The International and the National Organizing Committees of the 17th ICID have put together a tremendously interesting programme on infectious disease research and practice. Given the continued importance of threats including antibiotic resistance, malaria and more recently, Ebola and Zika viruses, the event underscores the continued importance of infectious diseases in India.”

The scientific programme covers a broad range of topics, including Specific Disease threats: Zika Virus, Ebola Outbreak, Pandemic Influenza, Anthrax, C. difficile, Q fever, Rift Valley Fever, MERS, West Nile Virus, Hemorrhagic Fevers, Bluetongue, Chikungunya, TSEs, Healthcare Associated Infections, TB, Childhood Pneumonia and many other infectious disease related challenges that are relevant to the Indian sub-continent and are growing in importance globally.

Some of the leading experts on various Infectious Diseasesparticipating in the conference include:

Zika Virus: 

Dr Kleber Luz, an infectologist at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil

Prof. Thomas Solomon on neurologic complications such as microcephaly and Guillain-Barre syndrome of Zika virus and other viruses

Chair Neurology

Director Institute Infection Global Health

University of Liverpool, UK

Thomas M. Yuill

Emeritus Professor of Veterinary Science and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Wisconsin - Madison

Dengue: 

Prof. Gathsaurie Neelika Malavige (Sri Lanka), Director of the Centre for Dengue Research at the Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Sri Jayawardanapura, Sri Lanka.

MERS: 

Ziad Memish (Saudi Arabia), Senior consultant infectious diseases at Prince Mohamed Bin Abdulaziz Hospital, MoH and Professor College of Medicine Alfaisal University in Riyadh, KSA

MERS, SARS, Zika, H1N1: 

Paul AnantharajahTambyah, Executive Committee member of the International Society for Infectious Diseases. Plenary talk on "'Zika, MERS, Ebola, SARS and H1N1: Local and Global Responses to Viral Threats” 

Childhood pneumonia:

Keith Klugman, Director of Pneumonia, Bill &Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle, USA

Ron Dagan, Professor of Pediatrics and Infectious Diseases at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel

Antimicrobial resistance:

Professor Dame Sally Davies is England’s Chief Medical Officer (CMO), and the Chief Scientific Adviser for the Department of Health. Plenary talk on 'Antimicrobial Resistance: From Problem to Policy to Action’ 

Marc Mendelson, Professor of Infectious Diseases at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. 

marc.mendelson@uct.ac.za
 

Malaria:

Nicholas White (Thailand): Ronald Ross memorial plenary lecture on “Malaria: Past, Present and Future”  

HIV

Anita Shet (India)

Professor of Pediatrics and Infectious Diseases at St John’s Medical College Hospital and Research Institute, Bangalore. 

Kenneth Mayer (USA) 

Co-Chair and Medical Research Director, The Fenway Institute

Director of HIV Prevention Research | Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

Professor of Medicine | Harvard Medical School

NOTES:

International Society for Infectious Diseases: ISID was created in 1986 by a merger between the International Congress on Infectious Diseases (ICID) and The International Federation on Infectious and Parasitic Diseases (IFIPD). The Society is composed of individual members from over 155 countries around the world.  Since its inception, ISID has been dedicated to improving the care of patients with infectious diseases, the professional development and standing of clinicians and scientists in the field, and the control of infectious diseases around the world.

http://www.isid.org/index.shtml

The Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) is working towards building a healthier India. It is helping to address the limited institutional and systems capacity in India by strengthening education and training, advancing research and technology and facilitating policy and practice in the area of Public Health.  PHFI is headquartered in New Delhi with national presence through its constituent units of four regional Indian Institutes of Public Health (IIPH) and Centres of Applied Research in core public health themes.

http://www.phfi.org

Hyderabad Convention Visitors Bureau (HCVB) is India’s first and only regional Convention Visitors Bureau initiated by the State Government to promote Hyderabad as India’s premier MICE destination. Its philosophy is based on one purpose – to 'take Hyderabad to the world and bring the world to Hyderabad' while capitalizing on the city’s richness in the science, IT, pharma and healthcare industries.