HRH The Princess Royal To Open The Centenary Conference Of The Royal Society For Tropical Medicine & Hygiene, UK

Main Category: Tropical Diseases
Also Included In: Conferences
Article Date: 06 Sep 2007 - 1:00 PDT

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HRH The Princess Royal will open the Centenary Conference of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene 'One Hundred Years of Tropical Medicine: Meeting the Millennium Goals' at 9am on Thursday 13 September 2007 at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in Westminster, London. HRH The Princess Royal is an Honorary Fellow of the Society.

This special centenary event will provide researchers and practitioners working in the field of international health with the latest information on developments in both medicine and international policy which are contributing to the alleviation of poverty and ill-health in the developing world in line with the eight UN Millennium Development Goals.

Following the official opening of the conference, a number of top international speakers will address delegates on reducing child mortality, improving maternal and newborn health and combating HIV, AIDS and TB. Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and Special Advisor to United Nations Secretary-General is among those presenting and will lecture on 'Achieving health for all in the poorest countries'.

The second day of the conference will look at combating malaria, tuberculosis and HIV and address the issue of the environment and international health. Special symposia will be held on tropical medicine in Japan and the new role for WHO's Tropical Disease Research (TDR) programme. On the final day a round table discussion on the control of major infections through community programmes precedes a closing session looking at the future of tropical medicine.

Professor Brian M Greenwood, Chair of the Conference and President of the RSTMH, said: "We are delighted that HRH The Princess Royal will open this conference in celebration of 100 years of the Society showing her sustained concerns for the health of children in the developing world. This high profile event has attracted a number of very high quality speakers and delegates to the event can be assured of a topical and interdisciplinary review of the progress being made in improving maternal and child health and combating major infectious diseases in the developing world.

The Royal Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene Centenary Conference takes place 13 - 15 September 2007 at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, Westminster, London, UK. The conference is supported by an exhibition of suppliers, NGOs, schools, publishers and associations.

Please include the following information your diary section:

Title:
Royal Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene Centenary Conference
One Hundred Years of Topical Medicine: Meeting the Millennium
Development Goals

Dates: 13-15 September 2007

Location: Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, Westminster, London

Bookings contact
Nina Woods, Elsevier
Tel: 01865 843297 Email: n.woods@elsevier.com

Web: http://www.rstmh.elsevier.com

About the RSTMH

The Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene has a distinguished history. The Society was founded in 1907 by Sir James Cantlie and Dr George Carmichael Low to study diseases met with in tropical countries. Sir Patrick Manson, the Society's first President (1907-9) is generally acknowledged as the 'father of tropical medicine'. He passed the presidency on to the Nobel laureate Sir Ronald Ross (1909-11), discoverer of the role of mosquitoes in the transmission of malaria. Since that time, many of the most distinguished practitioners and researchers in the field of tropical medicine have been fellows of the Society.

In 1920, King George V gave his permission for the Society to use the Royal prefix. Her Majesty the Queen is Patron of the Society and Her Royal Highness, the Princess Royal is an Honorary Fellow.

An important activity of the Society is the production of its journal, the Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene which has been published regularly since 1907. This journal has reported many major discoveries in tropical medicine and maintains a high reputation in the field.

Although many of the classical tropical diseases, such as malaria, continue to cause many deaths and much ill health, the pattern of illness in many poor, developing countries is changing with an increasing incidence of non-communicable diseases. The Society is responding to these changes with an increasing focus at its meetings and in its journal on the overall health problems of poor societies in the developing world and on how to tackle these using a multi-disciplinary approach. The rich world is, at last, coming to the conclusion that the gap in health between its populations and those of the poorest countries of the world is no longer acceptable and funds are being made available to bridge this gap. The Society, with nearly 100 years of experience of work in the developing world, is in a strong position to help to ensure that these new resources are spent wisely and well.

http://www.rstmh.org

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