ICEID 2012: Abstracts & Program

 

 

# 6217

 

It isn’t often that a Floridian wishes he were in Atlanta during the middle of March, but this week is an exception, as the ICEID (International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases) holds a 4-day conference in Georgia’s capital city.

 

 

 

For those of us unable to attend, we’ve a 221-page program and abstracts PDF with which to console ourselves. 

 

 

 

My understanding is that Maryn McKenna is attending, and she plans to update (hashtag #ICEID) via twitter this week.  You can follow her at @Marynmck.

IMED 2011: Abstracts And Presentations

 

 

# 5472

 

 

For infectious disease geeks there is nothing quite like attending a scientific conference where scores of scholarly presentations are given over a 3 or 4 day period.

 

Of course, we all aren’t lucky enough to attend these meetings.   And even when we are, it isn’t possible to sit in on all of the presentations.

 

The next best thing is getting your hands on the conference’s abstract book, slide presentations, and pdf files. 

 

And today, we’ve got exactly that from last February’s IMED 2011 Conference held in Vienna, Austria.

 

 

 

IMED is the International Meeting on Emerging Diseases and Surveillance, and it is organized by the ISID (International Society for Infectious Diseases).

 

In the 219 page abstract book you’ll find brief descriptions of well over 200 presentations and studies given at the conference.  You’ll find alternate download links on the Current Scientific Program page.

 

Better yet, there are now 78 detailed PDF files on a wide variety of presentations, many containing the slide presentations given at these talks. 

 

Since there are too many to list, and more may yet appear, I’ll simply give you the link to the listing page.

 

 

IMED 2011 • Vienna, Austria • February 4-7,2011

Scientific Program (updated January 26, 2011)

2011.02.28 Slide presentations for many of the presentations are now available. Please click the links below.

 

Just a few of the topics covered at this conference include:

 

Diseases at the Wildlife-Human Frontier

H1N1 Pandemic

Biosecurity and One Health

Emerging Diseases and the Media

Antibiotic Resistance

New Vaccines and Old Foes: Emerging Issues in Vaccine Preventable Diseases

New Surveillance Strategies

Climate Change and Infectious Diseases

Emerging Infection Prevention in the Healthcare Setting

Farm to Table: Foodborne Diseases

 

While I’ve just begun to examine this impressive bounty of infectious disease information I expect to highlight several of these studies and presentations over the next few weeks.

 

In the meantime, explore and enjoy this treasure trove of information.  

 

But pack a lunch.  You’ll probably be at it a long time.

ASTMH 59th Annual Meeting Abstract Book

 

 

 

# 5043

 

 

There was a time when I considered an evening curled up with a good novel by Robert Ludlum, Tom Clancy, or Dale Brown as having been well spent. 

 

These days, however, you are more likely to find me reading a different kind of techno-thriller . . .  abstracts from infectious disease meeting presentations.

 

Earlier this year I highlighted the abstract book from the International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases (ICEID 2010) conference held last July in Atlanta, Georgia.

 

Today, once again from Atlanta, we have the abstract book from this past week’s American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) 59th Annual Meeting.

 

ASTMH 59th Annual Meeting

November 3-7, 2010
Marriott Atlanta Marquis Hotel
Atlanta, Georgia, USA

 

Abstracts and Education

Abstract Book

The abstract book is available in electronic format only.  Download these abstract book files before the annual meeting.  The book is provided as one file and as six files, depending on the file size your computer can accommodate.

One File
Full abstract book

Six Files
Abstracts 1 - 231 (pages 1 - 69)
Abstracts 232 - 468 (pages 70 - 140)
Abstracts 469 - 710 (pages 140 - 211)
Abstracts 711 - 945 (pages 211 - 282)
Abstracts 946 - 1189 (pages 283 - 353)
Abstracts 1190 - 1345 and Author Index (pages 354-A425)

 

And here is enough reading to keep even the most devout disease geek engaged for weeks.

 

In excess of 1300 short abstracts on such diverse subjects as Dengue, Chikungunya, West Nile Virus, Malaria, along with a plethora of additional parasites, bacteria, and viruses to peruse.

 

I plan to highlight a few of these presentations in the coming days and weeks.

 

Admittedly, this kind of reading material may not be everybody’s cup of tea, but I wanted to provide my readers with a link to this source before I begin. 

IDSA Video Conference: What’s The Next Big Problem?

 

 

 

# 5004

 

 

 

As the weekend progresses I’m working my way through the IDSA press conferences conducted over the past two days from the IDSA’s 48th Annual meeting held in Vancouver.

 

I’ve just finished watching the 45 minute presentation:

 

IDSA: What's the Next Big Problem?

 

The meeting program lists this conference this way:

 

Moderator:
James Hughes, MD, IDSA President-Elect, Director of the Program in Global Infectious Diseases, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta

Panelists:

Eleni Galanis, MD, MPH, FRCPC, Physician Epidemiologist, British Columbia Centre for Disease Control, Vancouver

Charles Y. Chiu, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Laboratory Medicine and Medicine, Infectious Diseases, Director, UCSF-Abbott Viral Diagnostics and Discovery Center, San Francisco

Rangaraj Selvarangan, BVSc, PhD, Director, Microbiology & Virology Laboratories, Children's Mercy Hospital, Kansas City, Mo.

Julie Harris, PhD, MPH, Staff Epidemiologist, Mycotics Diseases Branch, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta

Monika Naus, MD, MHSc, British Columbia Centre for Disease Control, Medical Director, Immunization Programs, Associate Medical Director, Epidemiology Services, Associate Professor, School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia
Highlighted Abstracts:

• #196 Identification of a Novel Adenovirus Associated with a Deadly Outbreak in a Titi Monkey Colony [Full Abstract]

• #602 Human Parechovirus- Central Nervous System Infection in Young Children From Midwestern USA [Full Abstract]

• #642 Public Health Surveillance for Cryptococcus Gattii: An Emerging Disease in the United States Pacific Northwest [Full Abstract]

• #685 An Outbreak of Measles in British Columbia, Canada: An Unwelcome Consequence of the 2010 Winter Olympics [Full Abstract]

 

 

The media has picked up on the Novel Adenovirus jumping from monkeys to a researcher over the past 24 hours - giving it considerable play - probably because it reminds one of the discovery of Reston Ebola that was detailed so effectively in `The Hot Zone’.

 

New Virus 'Jumps' From Monkey to Scientist, Causing Serious Illness

Adenovirus strain is under study but experts say there's no immediate cause for alarm

By Jenifer Goodwin
HealthDay Reporter

FRIDAY, Oct. 22 (HealthDay News) -- A never-before detected strain of virus that killed more than one-third of a monkey colony at a U.S. lab appears to have 'jumped' from the animals to sicken a human scientist, researchers report.

(Continue . . . .)

 

 

While it certainly appears that this previous-unknown adenovirus infected a researcher (and unlike Ebola Reston, caused serious illness) it does not appear to have been transmitted from human-to-human outside of the lab.

 

This is the first adenovirus that has been credibly shown to cross species, and certainly gives one pause when you consider the recent emergence of other zoonotic pathogens.

 

Obviously an intriguing story, and one that deserves further investigation, but one that doesn’t appear to have any serious public health implications at this time.

 

Another presentation concerned the emergence of Cryptococcus Gattii, a tropical fungus that has over the past decade, mysteriously shown up in the Pacific Northwest.

 

You may recall I wrote about this infection last April in A Fungus Among Us.  It, like Coccidioidomycosis and Histoplasmosis can produce serious illness – particularly in immunocompromised individuals.

 

 

Other presentations covered Human Parechovirus and a measles outbreak in British Columbia that was likely contracted during outdoor events during the 2010 Winter Olympics.

 

 

These press conferences are a terrific way to get a `short course’ on several fascinating infectious disease studies that were presented this week at the IDSA conference.

 

And serves as a reminder that each year we seem to find new emerging (or sometimes re-emerging) infectious diseases to deal with.

 

You can view the other press conferences using the links below.  Highly recommended:

 

IDSA: When Patients Don't Know They Have HIV

IDSA: The Global Reach of Infectious Disease

IDSA: Influenza, Beyond the Pandemic

IDSA: Protecting the Children

IDSA: Foodborne and Related Diseases

IDSA: What's the Next Big Problem?

IDSA: Battling Superbugs

CIDRAP On Mutated H1N1 & IDSA Reports

 

# 4999

 

 

CIDRAP News does in-depth reporting on infectious disease issues five days a week, and consistently ranks among the best science and disease reporting you are going to find anywhere.

 

News Editor Robert Roos and staff science writer Lisa Schnirring are expert at taking complex subjects and presenting them in easily digestible reports.

 

In addition to their nightly news scan (NEWS SCAN: Global flu activity, novel flu vaccine, H1N1 attack rate, antimicrobial resistance, cruise ship outbreak) and a short feature story on a listeria-related recall in Texas, last night there were two other stories of note.

 

First, a look at yesterday’s big story that I also wrote about in Eurosurveillance On Recently Isolated H1N1 Mutations. 

 

This report concerns a slightly `drifted’ version of last year’s swine flu virus has been detected in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, something that has been fully expected since the emergence of the virus 18 months ago.

 

This has, nonetheless, sparked a fair amount of online speculation and media attention.

 

Lisa Schnirring brings us the details, including commentary from some well-respected influenza experts, in:

 

Study: 2009 H1N1 variant gained a foothold in three countries

Lisa Schnirring Staff Writer

Oct 21, 2010 (CIDRAP News) – Laboratory experts from Australia and Singapore have identified changes in the 2009 H1N1 flu virus that they say don't seem to make the vaccine less effective but bear watching.

 

Researchers first identified the genetic variants in April 2010 in Singapore, where they became more common, spreading to New Zealand and Australia during their winter flu seasons.

 

The group described its findings in today's issue of Eurosurveillance. Other experts contacted by CIDRAP News said the findings are not surprising.

(Continue . . .)

 

The second report comes from the pen of news editor Robert Roos, and it covers some of the subjects discussed in yesterday’s Influenza Press Conference from the IDSA’s 48th Annual meeting held in Vancouver this year.

 

 

IDSA studies report on range of flu issues

Robert Roos News Editor

Oct 21, 2010 (CIDRAP News) – Influenza reports presented at the Infectious Diseases Society of America's (IDSA's) annual conference today shed light on a range of topics, including vaccine acceptance among healthcare workers (HCWs) and risk factors for hospitalization in small children.

 

IDSA members discussed their reports in a press teleconference today from the meeting site in Vancouver, B.C., and the organization also released abstracts online.

(Continue . . .)

 

 

You can watch this hour-long influenza press conference online (along with others from this conference), in the multi-media section of Medpagetoday at this link. 

 

Some Highlighted Abstracts from the IDSA press release:

• #1430 Child and Household Risk Factors for Hospitalization with Laboratory-Confirmed Influenza Among Children Aged 6-59 Months – United States 2005-2008 [Full Abstract]

• #871 Safety of the 2009 H1N1 Influenza Vaccine in Pregnant Women [Full Abstract]

• #1346 Factors Influencing Acceptance of H1N1 Influenza Vaccine in Pregnancy [Full Abstract]

• #1344 Improving Influenza Vaccination Rates for Healthcare Workers [Full Abstract]

• #758 A Population-Based Study of Neurologic Manifestations of Severe Influenza A (H1N1) 2009 in California [Full Abstract]

• #868 All On the Line: Attitudes Toward Mandatory Influenza Vaccination Among Health Care Workers [Full Abstract]

• #869 Mandatory Influenza Vaccination of Health Care Workers: A Five Year Experience [Full Abstract]

IDSA news conferences schedule for yesterday and today include:

Thursday, October 21

8:30 a.m. PT   Overview (no teleconference option)

9:30 a.m. PT   HIV

10:30 a.m. PT  Global Health

11:45 a.m. PT  Influenza

Friday, October 22

8:30 a.m. PT    Pediatrics

9:45 a.m. PT    Foodborne and Related Diseases

11:00 a.m. PT   Emerging infections

Noon PT           Antibiotics

 

So you can expect more news to emerge from this annual meeting today, and over the weekend.