Emerging infectious disease epidemics are one of the greatest threats to the public health and economic security of the Asian region. Diseases such as dengue/dengue hemorrhagic fever, SARS, avian influenza, Nipah encephalitis and Japanese encephalitis routinely cause a significant disease burden, but the frequent and unpredicted epidemics that occur on a regular basis take a devastating health and economic toll on countries when they occur. The global trends that have been the principal drivers of the dramatic 20th century re-emergence of epidemic infections diseases, i.e., population growth, uncontrolled urbanization, environmental change, changes in animal husbandry practices and globalization, are projected to continue, suggesting that emerging and re-emerging infectious disease will continue to be a major problem for the indefinite future, and that Asia will be the focal point for the emergence of newly recognized diseases. To reverse this trend, there is a desperate need to have a better understanding of the ecology/epidemiology of these diseases, and for new diagnostics, drugs, vaccines and insecticides to detect, treat, control and prevent them. Among the numerous organizations/institutions that have developed programs to combat emerging infectious diseases in recent years are the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School, the Pediatric Dengue Vaccine Initiative and Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases. These three organizations are joining forces to advance the research agenda to develop new tools to treat, prevent and control emerging infectious diseases. As part of this effort, they will jointly sponsor an International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases in Singapore on 8-11 December, 2009. This will be a unique 4 day meeting that will combine symposia on emerging infectious diseases and infectious disease modeling with the 4th Asia Dengue Research Network Meeting. The venue will be the new Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School campus in Singapore. The program will include invited presentation by global leaders in infectious diseases as well as presentations on the latest dengue research results. Participation is encouraged by all persons interested in emerging infectious diseases. We welcome you to Singapore where infectious disease research and the development of new technology for detection, treatment, control and prevention of emerging infectious disease is of the highest priority.
Duane J Gubler, ScD, FAAAS, FIDSA |