Singapore, December 8, 2009: Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore has organized a 4 day along symposia on Emerging Infectious Diseases Conference 2009 at its campus here. Supported by the Ministry of Health, Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Regional Emerging Diseases Intervention (REDI) Centre and the British High Commission in Singapore, the international conference is cosponsored by the Pediatric Dengue Vaccine Initiative and Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases in Singapore.

 

This meeting, starting from today, will combine symposia on emerging infectious diseases and on infectious disease modeling with the 4th Asia Dengue Research Network Meeting. The program includes invited presentations by global leaders in infectious diseases as well as presentations on the latest dengue research.

 

Emerging infectious disease epidemics are one of the greatest threats to the public health and economic security of the Asian region. Diseases such as dengue/dengue hemorrhagic fever, SARS, avian influenza, Nipah encephalitis and Japanese encephalitis routinely cause a significant disease burden, but the frequent and unpredicted epidemics that occur on a regular basis and may spread rapidly via globalization, may take a devastating health and economic toll on countries when they occur.

 

The global trends that have been the principal drivers of the dramatic 20th century re-emergence of epidemic infectious diseases, i.e., population growth, uncontrolled urbanization, environmental change, changes in animal husbandry practices and globalization, are projected to continue, suggesting that emerging and re-emerging infectious disease will continue to be a major problem for the indefinite future, and that Asia will be the focal point for the emergence of newly recognized diseases.

 

The symposia on Emerging Infectious Diseases and Infectious Disease Modelling are the first such meetings sponsored by Duke-NUS, and will inaugurate the school’s new Signature Research Program in Emerging Infectious Diseases. The Dengue Research Network meeting is the fourth in the series, which was first convened in Bangkok in 2003, with subsequent meetings in Singapore (2005) and Taipei (2007).

 

The conference brings together leading research scientists and public health professionals to encourage the exchange of scientific and public health information on global emerging infectious disease issues. Some of the experts who will making presentations at the symposia include - Prof Duane Gubler, Director of Emerging Infectious Diseases, Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore, Dr David Heymann, Centre on Global Health Security, Chatnam House, UK, Dr Ian Lipkin, Columbia University, USA, Dr Malik Peiris, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Dr Michael Merson, Duke Global Health Institute, USA, Dr Mariano Gracia-Blanco, Duke University, USA, Dr Thomas Denny, Duke Human Vaccine Institute, USA, Prof Edison Liu, Genome Institute of Singapore and Dr David Rogers, University of Oxford, UK.

 

The above speakers will discuss topics such as pathogen discovery, pandemic viruses, global health, pathogenesis, vaccine development, functional genomics, dengue, influenza as well as surveillance, epidemiology, communications, training, bioterrorism, and preventions and control of emerging infectious diseases in Singapore, the region, and the world.