South Asian Melioidosis Congress 2017

University Of Florida, Gainesville FL

Investigators

Abstract

Proposal Summary Melioidosis is an emerging infectious disease caused by the Gram-negative bacterium Burkholderia pseudomallei. Mostly confined to the tropics the bacterium's established habitat reaches around the globe. The global at risk population is estimated at >3 billion people. Although case numbers are significantly lower than those of well-known diseases such as tuberculosis, malaria, leptospirosis and dengue, the global fatality of human melioidosis is substantially higher than that of e.g. dengue and leptospirosis. Hence, in terms of mortality melioidosis could potentially be one of the main ?killer? diseases of the tropics. There is an increasing interest in melioidosis worldwide, and a growing realization that awareness, diagnosis, treatment and prevention are a matter of great public health importance. Perhaps nowhere is the interest higher than in South Asia. This is a region estimated to bear 44% of the global melioidosis burden, yet awareness of the disease and its bacterial cause remains very low. There is therefore an urgent and continuing need to bring together subject matter experts, clinicians, academicians, health care workers, and students to disseminate knowledge, to educate, and to put into clinical practice our evolving knowledge of melioidosis and its bacterial cause B. pseudomallei. The specific aim of this application is to secure funds for travel, accommodation and registration to enable at least 10-12 individuals ? mostly trainee level clinical researchers, postdoctoral researchers, and students - to attend the 2nd South Asian Melioidosis Conference (SAMC2017) that will be held in Colombo, Sri Lanka, from August 29-30, 2017. The main objectives of SAMC2017 are to bring together 75-100 subject matter experts, clinicians, academicians, students, and health care workers to: 1) communicate and discuss new findings from academic laboratories and clinical settings; 2) discuss strategies to put into clinical practice proper diagnostics and therapeutics to control and prevent melioidosis; and 3) aim to sustain such efforts beyond the conference by developing and/or maintaining strong collaborations and ways to readily disseminate information in South Asia and beyond. The lessons learned from the 1st South Asian Melioidosis Conference that was held in 2015 in Manipal, India, clearly showed that the current needs in South Asia are special and that they cannot be met by any of the other regularly scheduled melioidosis meetings.