NEWS AND EVENTS


International Symposium on Emerging Infectious Diseases and Socio-ecological Systems: An interdisciplinary meeting integrating social science methods and ecosystem approaches to improve infectious diseases research in the Asia-Pacific Region
Honolulu, Hawaii, March 9-11, 2005
 
This working meeting, co-hosted by APTMID and the East-West Center,  is supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health for methodological innovation in interdisciplinary health research.

The aims of the meeting are to:
a) Expand dialogue and contextual understanding of EIDs beyond disciplinary constraints;
b) Advance methodologies based on integration of methods that address the combined social and ecological context of emerging infectious disease; and
c) Identify bridges and barriers to innovating, integrating and sustaining prevention and control efforts.

The meeting will focus on three diseases that reasonably cover the range of social-ecological dimensions requiring consideration in the Asia:  dengue fever, HIV/AIDS, and leptospirosis, although discussion will include EID's generally. Expected outcomes include publications and recommendations for collaborative projects to improve research, prevention and control of EIDs in the Asia-Pacific Region. For more information, please download the meeting overview, or contact Dr. Margot Parkes. 


The Pacific Center for Emerging Infectious Disease Research, directed by Dr. Richard Yanagihara, has recently received a $9.6 million COBRE grant from NIH.



The Asia-Pacific Center for Infectious Disease Ecology Research, directed by Dr. Bruce Wilcox and the Asia-Pacific Center for Biosecurity, Disaster and Conflict Research, directed by Dr. Fredrick Burkle have recently been formed. Funding proposals for these two centers are in progress.


Joint APITMID-Vietnam Environmental Sensing Project Intitated
A collaborative environmental sensors R&D project recently was intitiated between APITMID, Stanford University, the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology and the Hanoi School of Public Health. The project, funded by the Department of Defense, is using state of the
art electronic sensing technology developed at Stanford University as the basis for a network of environmental sensors deployed in a pilot project near Hanoi. The system exploits existing wireless communications technology and the internet to provide real-time, continous environmental water monitoring. This is the first step in a long term collaboration aimed at improving environmental health and infectious disease surveillance in SE Asia. The initiative with Vietnam is part of APITMID's developing program on infectious diseases information technology led by its Center for Infectious Disease Ecology in collaboration with a number of private and public sector partnerships. The program includes deployment sites in Hawaiian watersheds to develop tools for ecological assessment, and for monitoring environmental conditions and specific biological and chemical markers indicative of target pathogens
associated with disease emergence.