Global Health And Infectious Diseases: NIAID Scientists To Speak On Range Of Infectious Disease Topics At Major Scientific Meeting

Main Category: Infectious Diseases / Bacteria / Viruses
Also Included In: Conferences;  HIV / AIDS;  Tropical Diseases
Article Date: 23 Oct 2008 - 4:00 PDT

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Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., will speak during the opening session of ICAAC/IDSA 2008, a joint meeting of the American Society for Microbiology and the Infectious Diseases Society of America, in Washington, DC. His keynote lecture at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 25, is titled Global Health and Infectious Diseases: A Look to the Future. Dr. Fauci is director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health.

Among many global health challenges, infectious diseases remain among the most problematic, accounting for about one quarter of all deaths globally, and nearly two-thirds of deaths in sub-Saharan Africa. Dr. Fauci will discuss progress--and remaining challenges--in the fight against major infectious causes of death and disability such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and drug-resistant microbes. He also will discuss how conceptual and technological progress in fields such as genomics and nanotechnology has invigorated infectious disease research. These advances also are contributing to exciting studies on the ecology of human disease, including the Human Microbiome Project, which is exploring how the billions of bacteria that inhabit our bodies contribute to health and illness.

Other NIAID scientists are scheduled to present findings during the four-day meeting as well. The range of topics covered reflects the broad scope of NIAID's research efforts aimed at better understanding, treating and preventing infectious and immune-mediated diseases.

• Noroviruses, the highly contagious viruses that cause the episodes of acute gastroenteritis also known as winter vomiting disease (Kim Green, Ph.D.)
  
  
• The role of gut-dwelling commensal bacteria in producing the symptoms of Crohn's disease, a chronic inflammatory disease of the intestines (Warren Strober, M.D.)
  
  
• Antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections caused by Staphylococcus epidermidis (Michael Otto, Ph.D.) and Staphylococcus aureus (Frank DeLeo, Ph.D.)
  
  
• Finding ways to treat primary immunodeficiencies, inherited conditions in which immune function is impaired (Steve Holland, M.D.)
  
  
• Containing Ebola virus, for which there is currently no vaccine or specific treatment (Gary Nabel, M.D., Ph.D.)

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Additional information about the 2008 ICAAC/IDSA Joint Meeting is available at http://www.icaacidsa2008.org/. The meeting will be held at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC.

NIAID conducts and supports research--at NIH, throughout the United States, and worldwide--to study the causes of infectious and immune-mediated diseases, and to develop better means of preventing, diagnosing and treating these illnesses. News releases, fact sheets and other NIAID-related materials are available on the NIAID Web site at http://www.niaid.nih.gov/.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH)--The Nation's Medical Research Agency--includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical research, and it investigates the causes, treatments and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov/.

News releases, fact sheets and other NIAID-related materials are available on the NIAID Web site at http://www.niaid.nih.gov/.

Source: NIAID Office of Communications
NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

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