NTDs on the Agenda During Infectious Disease Conference

Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) were the focus of the annual conference of the International Society for Infectious Diseases (ISID) July 8 – 10, 2011 in Boston, Mass. More than 370 participants attended, including some drawn from developing countries, donor communities, UN agencies, academia, research institutions and pharmaceutical companies. 

NTDs debilitate and dramatically reduce the quality of life for more than one billion people living in developing countries around the world. As a result, these diseases cause great suffering and obstruct socioeconomic development in these countries. Eliminating these diseases will require effective action and strong sustained global commitment

Oral and poster presentations were made in plenary and breakout sessions. Timely and important topics such as “Neglected diseases need more than drugs”, “Maintaining the momentum for NTDs as a future health priority”, “Global support, community action”, were discussed in the plenary. 

The Task Force for Global Health was well represented in this meeting and presentations were made by Drs Danny Haddad, Adrian Hopkins and Eric Ottesen highlighting the achievements and milestones attained over the past several years in trachoma, river blindness and lymphatic filariasis prevention and control programs.

The conference was jointly organized by ISID and its collaborators (American Society for Microbiology, Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative, George Institute, Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, Sabin Vaccine Institute, Save the Children, US Centers for Disease Control & Prevention and WHO Regional Office for South East Asia. 

For further information, please visit ISID website: http://www.isid.org

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This is the second installment in Dr. Teshome's blog series.