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World Health Organization meeting in collaboration with the Fondation Mérieux and the Institut Pasteur.

Securing global health in the 21st century: epidemic intelligence, identification of risks and opportunities for control 

 March 28th from 9:00 to 11:00

Today’s highly mobile, interdependent and interconnected world provides myriad opportunities for the rapid spread of diseases. Timely and reliable identification of emerging or re-emerging infectious diseases is crucial to stop their spread at the source and mitigate their impact on populations.

Cholera, epidemic meningococcal diseases and yellow fever made an alarming come back in the last quarter of the 20th century and call for renewed efforts in surveillance, prevention, and control. Emerging viral diseases such as H1N1 or avian influenza, Ebola and Marburg haemorrhagic fevers, Nipah virus, SARS or West Nile fever have triggered major international concern, raised new scientific challenges, caused major human suffering and enormous economic damage.

Although the vast majority of threats to international public health security are posed by well known epidemic-prone infectious diseases, we must be ready to respond to diseases that may arise from acute environmental or climatic changes that may put millions of people at risk and require an international response. 

Against this backdrop and using recent examples such as, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, the presenters will lay out the main challenges we face in individual and public health today, in particular the critical concerns in developing countries, such as the need to improve timely diagnosis of infectious diseases as a critical component of preparedness and response. The presenters will also debate solutions to these challenges - notably the International Health Regulations (2005), which provide the only global coordination framework to help countries be better prepared to prevent the spread of public health events and be ready to respond quickly and effectively when necessary - and ways to strengthen the global network of partners committed to securing global health.

 

Speakers:

Dr Guénaël Rodier, Director, Division of Communicable Diseases, Health Security and Environment, Regional Office for Europe, World Health Organization

Presentation : Epidemics, pandemics and other health security challenges: an international perspective

 

Pr Françoise Barré-Sinoussi of the Unité de Régulation des Infections Rétrovirales at the Institut Pasteur, winner of the Nobel Prize in 2008 for Physiology or Medicine.

Presentation: Testing and monitoring: a key issue of HIV prevention and treatment

 

Pr Ogobara Doumbo, Director General of the Malaria Research and Training Center of Bamako, Member of the French Academy of Medicine, Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Fondation Mérieux 

Presentation: Point-of-care diagnostic of infectious diseases with a focus on malaria.  

 

Moderator:

Mr Cemil Giray Alyanak, President of the Mondofragilis Group, which provides media and communications services and institutional strategies to the public interest sector, notably the UN family, civil society and governments

 

TDR (panel discussion)

Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases

Infectious Diseases of Poverty: Innovative Solutions 

March 28th from 17:30 to 19:00

 

One billion people suffer from one or more of the "neglected infectious diseases of poverty", most of whom live in sub-Saharan Africa and south and south-east Asia. While some of these infections can be fatal, almost all take a large toll on health and development – adults suffer from chronic disability and ill-health, and children have poor physical and cognitive development and anaemia.  These diseases have received little attention from global pharmaceutical companies or international research efforts.

This panel brings together leading scientists and policy makers to discuss innovative solutions to reducing this burden. Models and partnerships that have worked will be shared, including effective and cost-effective strategies targeted at the most vulnerable populations worldwide. 

 

 

Panelists: 

Ambassador Tom Mboya Okeyo, The Permanent Representative of the Republic of Kenya to the United Nations Office, Geneva (tbc) 

Dr Thomas Teuscher, Deputy Executive Secretary, Roll Back Malaria Partnership, WHO 

Dr Jean-Pierre Paccaud, Director Business Development, Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi), Geneva 

Dr Mary Ann Lansang, Head, Knowledge Management Unit, Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria, Geneva 

Dr Soumya Swaminathan, Research Coordinator, TDR, Geneva (moderator)