Incidence, Severity, and Impact 2012
Post Conference Photos:
Overview
In March 2009, the first isirv International Symposium on Viral Respiratory Disease Surveillance took place in Seville, Spain. The symposium garnered the enthusiastic participation of approximately 200 delegates from 43 countries, representing various government and academic institutions, as well as commercial organisations. The two-and-a-half day meeting was structured to produce action-oriented meeting outcomes, including case definition standardisation, modeling of disease burden, and motivating surveillance development in different parts of the world.
Demonstrating the timeliness of that meeting, the first cases of influenza A/H1N1 were diagnosed just weeks later, and with the declaration of a pandemic by WHO in June 2009, pandemic plans were put to the test. The pandemic placed intense demands upon public health and healthcare systems globally, and presented significant challenges for national authorities to determine how many people were developing illness due to influenza infection, how many were infected (with or without symptoms), and what was the population health impact attributable to influenza.
The second international conference, Incidence, Severity, and Impact, will further develop some of the themes raised at the 2009 Seville symposium. Experts in the field of influenza will examine the challenges of assessing severity from a global perspective and evaluate core methodology or measurements that can be used. A global perspective on lessons learned from the 2009 pandemic including severity, impact, and spread will be a highlight of the meeting.
Conference topics will include: Assessing the impact of seasonal and pandemic influenza, measuring the incidence or extent of infection, as well as measuring the severity of the disease itself. The event will bring together leading international health experts and organisations to discuss these topics and draw on perspectives from many disciplines. Evaluating the collective experience during the recent pandemic, this event will tap into a wealth of knowledge.
Conference Goals and Objectives
The goal of this conference is to promote discussion among scientists, health care professionals, and public health officials about the assessment of the incidence and impact of influenza epidemics and pandemics. Presentations and discussions will enable participants to consider approaches to and options for collection, assessment, analysis, and interpretation of relevant information, communication to health care professionals and the wider public, and use for decision making by public health authorities.
Target Audience
The intended audience for the meeting includes clinicians, public health practitioners, laboratory scientists, researchers (clinical, epidemiology, virology, immunology, sociology, and behavioral science), health system managers and national and international policymakers.
isirv
The International Society for Influenza and other Respiratory Virus Diseases (isirv) is an independent and international scientific professional society promoting the prevention, detection, treatment, and control of influenza and other respiratory virus diseases. To learn more about isirv please visit www.isirv.org.
