Threats from infectious diseases on Uppsala Health Summit agenda

At the Uppsala Health Summit Tackling Infectious Disease Threats, due to start next week, experts and decision makers from ministries, academia, companies and voluntary organisations are meeting to discuss how jointly to reduce the risk of severe outbreaks.

The theme for the 2017 Summit on 10–11 October is threats from new and recurrent infectious diseases. Of all new communicable diseases, 75 per cent are zoonotic: humans and animals infect each other. Intensive animal production, climate change, population growth and our global travels are boosting the risk of infections breaking out. Growing antibiotic resistance is exacerbating the risk. The complexity of these diseases means that veterinarians, public-health experts, doctors, biologists, ecologists and social scientists must work together to prevent, detect and control their spread. How this can be achieved will be discussed in lectures and workshops on the following themes:

- Zoonotic Diseases in Livestock – Mitigating Risk Behaviour
- Empowered and Resilient Communities – A Need for New Perspectives
- A Roadmap for Effective Diagnostics to Combat Global Infectious Disease
- New Vaccines and Medicines: Monitor Safety in Emergency Situations
- Innovation and Big Data in Health Surveillance
- Whose Priorities Count? Empowering Scientific Capacities for Locally-Relevant and Sustainable Solutions
- Drivers and Constraints in Modern Typing Tools for Detection of Foodborne Disease

The lecturers will include Dr Pierre Formenty, head of the Viral and Haemorrhagic Fever team (VHF) in WHO; Dr Paul Richards, anthropologist and author of the book Ebola: How a People’s Science Helped End an Epidemic; Dr Beth-Ann Griswold of the American pharmaceutical company Merck, in charge of further development and production of vaccine against Ebola; and Dr Peter Dazsak, President of EcoHealth Alliance, who is working to enhance our understanding of how the health of ecosystems affects human beings and what can be done to reverse current trends.

More information about Uppsala Health Summit, the programme and the speakers.

Read the report issued ahead of the Summit.

Uppsala Health Summit is held by Uppsala University; the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU); the Swedish Medical Products Agency; the Swedish National Food Agency; the Swedish National Veterinary Institute (SVA); Region Uppsala; the Uppsala Monitoring Centre; the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare (Forte), the Municipality of Uppsala; and the World Class Uppsala network.

To sign up or for more information, contact Senior Press Officer Anneli Waara, phone +46-(0)70-425 0718, anneli.waara@uadm.uu.se