Date: 24-26 October 2012,
Location: Edinburgh International Conference Centre, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

The European Scientific Conference on Applied Infectious Disease Epidemiology (ESCAIDE) provides a unique opportunity for public health scientists, epidemiologists, microbiologists and others with a professional interest in infectious disease public health to come together to share experiences and knowledge. It is also an excellent forum to be updated on methodologies to support outbreak investigation, and learn more about how epidemiology, microbiology and other disciplines can be applied to diminish the impact of communicable disease.

Online registration is now closed, but you can register on site starting Tuesday, 23rd October, 16.00.

To find out more please visit the conference website: http://ecdc.europa.eu/en/ESCAIDE/Pages/ESCAIDE.aspx

Neglected Disease Research and Development: A Five-Year Review

Date: Monday, 3^rd December 2012
Time: 10:30am – 12.30pm
Place: London, Academy of Medical Sciences, John Newsom-Davis CR/CC

Speakers: Dr Mary Moran (Policy Cures); Line Matthiessen (European Commission);
Mike Strange (GlaxoSmithKline); TBC (Gates Foundation)
Chair: Andrew Jack, Financial Times

To register, please follow the link: http://g-finder.eventbrite.co.uk

Join the report author, Dr Mary Moran, and key commentators to discuss the report’s findings and what this means for the future.

G-FINDER survey is the most comprehensive report to date on public and private funding into R&D for neglected diseases like malaria, TB, HIV, pneumonia, sleeping sickness and helminth infections. It covers 31 diseases and 134 product areas. G-FINDER is conducted by the independent research group Policy Cures and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

For more information regarding G-FINDER and Policy Cures, visit: www.policycures.org.
For any other query please contact 

DISCONTOOLS, the FP7 project that focuses on the prioritisation of research to hasten the delivery of new or better diagnosis, vaccines and pharmaceuticals to control animal diseases, will hold a conference on  “Fighting animal diseases – identifying research priorities”.

WHEN: Thursday, 15 November 2012 from 9.00 to 17.00*
WHERE: Hotel Silken Berlaymont, 11-19 Boulevard Charlemagne, Brussels, Belgium
WHAT:

• FP7, Technology Platform & ERA-Net Philosophy
• From ETPGAH Action Plan to DISCONTOOLS
• Objectives and “Philosophy” of DISCONTOOLS
• Disease Prioritisation, Gap Analysis, Technology Evaluation
• Horizon 2020 and Animal Health Research

*Preceded by dinner on the evening of 14 November at the Hotel Silken Berlaymont

Registration is open
Hotel reservations must be completed by the individual before 1 October 2012

For further information, please see: http://www.ifahsec.org/discontools-conference-fighting-animal-diseases-identifying-research-priorities/

or email: , Telephone: +32.2.543.75.60

World Association for the Advancement of Veterinary Parasitology African Foundation (WAAVP AF)
The WAAVP AF will provide a limited number of partial scholarships to assist veterinary parasitologists from Africa to attend the 24th WAAVP Conference
to be held in Perth,Australia, 25-29 August 2013

For more information on these scholarships please see:
English (pdf) - http://rossu.edu/veterinary-school/research/documents/WAAVPPosterFinal2013.pdf
French (pdf) - http://rossu.edu/veterinary-school/research/documents/WAAVPAfricanFoundationFrenchwithEnglishheadingMay172012.pdf

Origin and History of WAAVP - http://rossu.edu/veterinary-school/research/documents/WAAVPOriginandHistory.pdf

The One Health approach – addressing health constraints in a developing context

One day meeting – Wednesday 31st October 2012 (No meeting fee)
Location: Eigtveds Pakhus, Copenhagen
Organisers: M. V. Johansen, A. Dalsgaard & A. Permin, SUND-University of Copenhagen & DHI
Contact: Kirsten Andersen,
Speakers will be announced shortly.

Abstracts are invited for both oral and poster presentaion – Deadline 10th March 2012

Euroscicon Small Conference – Multidisciplinary integrated approaches to understand evasion of host immune responses by pathogens

Infectious disease are still a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Successful treatment and prevention are still hampered by insufficient understanding of the subtle interactions that govern the infectious processes. Evasion of the natural or vaccine-induced immune response is often at the basis of the onset and escalation of disease and can also result in the persistence of the pathogen in chronic infections. This EuroSciCon meeting will be a premier forum for the presentation of cutting-edge research on key mechanisms used by different classes of pathogens to evade host innate and acquired immunity. The meeting will contribute to steer the course of future research into more rational measures to prevent disease in humans and animals.

Meeting Chair:  Dr Pietro Mastroeni, Cambridge University, UK

This event  has CPD accreditation and will have a  discussion panel session.

On registration you will be able to submit your questions to the panel that will be asked by the chair on the day of the event

For more information see the meeting website: http://www.regonline.co.uk/builder/site/Default.aspx?EventID=1039791

Bursaries are now available for Euroscicon events. Please see website for details: http://eurosciconnews.com/archives/2323

16-17 APRIL 2012, ANTWERP, BELGIUM

Organised by the Unit of Veterinary Helminthology of the Department of Biomedical Sciences, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium

Topics ( More details can be downloaded here)

Session 1: Diagnostic tools

Session 2: Clinical aspects

Session 3: Epidemiology and Socio-economic aspects

Presentation of COST Action Preliminary Proposal requirements

Introduction of EUCWG Website proposal: discussion

The way forward: an open discussion between all research groups on:

• Research priorities: “which gaps to fill first?”
• Future collaborations
• How to join forces of the European research groups to raise new funding for future research on T. solium?

The next ICONZ Annual General Meeting & Management Board Meeting will be
held on Sunday 30th Oct 2011 in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The meeting has been scheduled to coincide with the:

ITM / DVTD Joint Colloquium on Zoonoses and Neglected Infectious Diseases of Africa,
1 – 4 November 2011, Indaba Hotel, Johannesburg, South Africa.

For further details on this conference please see:
http://web.up.ac.za/default.asp?ipkCategoryID=15382&subid=15382&ipklookid=13

Please note that the Abstract Deadline has been extended until Tues 31st May 2011 for ICONZ members. However, we encourage you to submit abstracts as soon as possible.

EPIDEMICS³ The Third International Conference on Infectious Disease Dynamics
Boston, USA, 29th November to 2nd December 2011.

The abstract submission deadline is the 30th June via the online abstract submission system.

For more details or to submit an abstract please see http://www.epidemics.elsevier.com/.

• Provisional Programme [PDF 57KB]

ECTMIH 2011 invites researchers, practitioners and all those interested in the conference topics to present contributions reflecting on the issues of the conference.

Those interested can send an abstract of the paper they are willing to discuss at the conference, in accordance with the online submission procedure provided in the call for papers published in our website (click here for details), before June 3rd 2011.

To foster active involvement of students and researchers from low income countries and to put in evidence highly qualified researchers in Leishmaniasis, LABORATORIOS LETI offers FOUR GRANTS for BEST ABSTRACTS ON LEISHMANIASIS for RESEARCHERS OF ENDEMIC AREAS.

The grants will cover the costs for travel and accommodation for the 7th ECTMIH in October in Barcelona.

A Best Paper Awards Board will be appointed by the ECTMIH 2011 Scientific Committee, in order to select the set of papers to be awarded.

Details of rules or regulations will be available soon in our website.

More details on awards and grants for the Congress will be available soon.

Other important dates to remember:

• June 3rd – Deadline for abstract submission
• July 11th – Notification of abstracts acceptance/rejection
• August 29th – Deadline for late breaker abstract submission

Websites:

• http://www.ectmihbarcelona2011.org/
• http://www.festmih.eu/

The dates for the 2011 CWGESA GA meeting has now been confirmed to be July 20-22, 2011.

• Announcement [PDF 360KB]

[Duration - 00:56 minutes]

[download this audio/video file or get the Flash Player to see this media player]

[Duration - 01:22 minutes]

[download this audio/video file or get the Flash Player to see this media player]

[Duration - 04:53 minutes]

[download this audio/video file or get the Flash Player to see this media player]

• Preliminary agenda [PDF 553KB]
• http://www.healthtech.com/NGL

The 3rd International Conference on Neglected Zoonotic Diseases: Community based interventions for prevention and control of NZDs will be held at the World Health Organization Headquarters in Geneva from 23 to 24 November 2010.

By Invitation only.

• Provisional agenda [PDF 180KB]

Article revised 15/11/2010 – please note there has been a meeting room change (see below).

We are intending to have an informal case study workshop to finalise Case Study plans in Geneva on the morning of Monday 22nd November from 10.30 am. This will be followed by an open Management Board meeting with Partners and the Advisory Council at 2 pm that afternoon. These meetings will be held in the Executive Board at WHO Headquarters (20 Avenue Appia, 1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland).

All ICONZ members are welcome to attend the Case Study Workshop for group discussions in the Morning and all Partners and Management Board Representatives are welcome to attend the Open Management Board Meeting. Please note you will need to confirm your attendance with Iona Benge at the ICONZ secretariat so that we can secure a WHO security pass for entry.

Intersectoral collaboration between the medical and veterinary professions in low-resource societies.

“Where medics and vets join forces”

• Programme [PDF 1.3MB]
• http://www.itg.be/internet/colloq2010/

CALL FOR SPEAKER PROPOSALS

Cambridge Healthtech Institute is proud to announce its Second Annual Encouraging Development of Therapeutics for Neglected Diseases (April 4-5, 2011), co-located with the Third Annual Collaborative Innovations in Biomedicine (April 5-6, 2011) in Philadelphia, PA.

Neglected diseases are those for which there is no shortage of patients, but rather a shortfall in the ability of these patients to pay market rates for appropriate treatments. In recent years there has been a strong increase in funding and investment in the development of new therapeutics for these diseases, many of which are tropical infectious diseases.

The reasons why companies and researchers focus on developing treatments for these diseases are diverse, and there is a real need for better coordination and sharing of best practices in order to make investments as effective as possible. While much of the focus is on early efforts to identify new targets or identify new therapeutics for individual diseases, perhaps the greater challenge lies in the creation of a sustainable long-term framework. The cost of discovery projects can be low, whereas the cost and challenges of moving projects into later stage efforts to conduct clinical evaluations create the need for strong, objective methods for prioritization.

How can communication and collaboration be improved across this field, and particularly with those in less developed countries where the treatments are needed and must be implemented? What best practices can be shared, particularly with consortia and public-private partnerships, to help work in this vital field progress more rapidly and more effectively?

This meeting brings together experts from the range of segments participating in this field, including governmental, philanthropic, academic and commercial organizations, as well as consortia and partnerships. The goal is to present and discuss key developments and strategies, evaluate what is working well and what lessons have been learned, and to map out ideas for how best to improve results for developing, evaluating and implementing new therapeutics for neglected diseases.

Coverage Includes:

• Case studies of successful collaborations
• Drug repositioning projects applied to neglected diseases
• Engaging researchers and other stakeholders in developing countries
• The role of low cost diagnostics for neglected diseases
• Strategies for aggregating and supporting markets in developing countries
• Intellectual property challenges based on dual market strategy
• Networks for more efficient sharing of research results and resources
• Vaccines for prevention vs. treatment considerations
• Infrastructure for clinical evaluation and healthcare delivery in developing countries
• Evaluation of current funding opportunities and motivations
• Current progress and novel developments in ongoing research projects

If you would like be considered for giving a presentation at this meeting, please submit a presentation title and a brief (maximum of 60 words) summary of the topic you wish to cover. Priority will be given to higher level strategic issues over detailed technical coverage of a specific project. Feel free to suggest an additional topic that you think would add value to the conference.

All speaker proposals will be reviewed by our Advisory Committee.

Deadline for submission is October 8, 2010.

Register early and SAVE up to $300 off the standard rate.

For more details on the conference, please contact:

Margit Eder, Ph.D.

Conference Director

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P:

For partnering and sponsorship information, please contact:

Arnold Wolfson

Manager, Business Development

Cambridge Healthtech Institute

T: (+1)

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• http://www.healthtech.com/ngl

On November 5 ITM is organizing a joint symposium “Intersectoral collaboration between the medical and veterinary professions in low-resource societies – ‘Where medics and vets join forces’.

This symposium is jointly organised by:

• Be-troplive, the Belgian Platform on Tropical Animal Health and Production
• Be-cause Health, the Belgian Platform for International Health
• The Strategic Network on Zoonoses
• The Strategic Network on Neglected Diseases:

This joint symposium is organized as a related event at the start of the ITM Colloquium “Health Research towards Universal coverage – Calling upon Emerging voices to make the difference”.

Translation will be provided between French and English.

The programme, the online registration and further information on the joint
symposium of 5 November and the colloquium (8 and 9 November) and related
events is available on http://www.itg.be/colloq2010.

Best wishes, Sue

• Programme [PDF 184KB]
• http://www.itg.be/colloq2010

The next European Congress of Tropical Medicine and International Health will be hosted in Barcelona, Spain, from 3 to 6 October 2011. This will be the 7th Congress organized under the auspices of the Federation of European Societies for Tropical Medicine and International Health (FESTMIH).

• http://www.festmih.eu/

The World Association for the Advancement of Veterinary Parasitology Conference (WAAVP) in 2011 will be held in Argentina from 21-15 August 2011. We want to reach as many suitable young parasitologists in Africa who are interested to apply. May I call on you to circulate the attached announcement to colleagues in Africa and encourage those who qualify to submit applications? Your suggestions of where to post this information are welcomed. The announcement will be posted on the WAAVP 2011 Conference website.

• WAAVP AF 2011 Poster [PDF 45KB]
• http://www.waavp.org/

The 3rd International Conference on Neglected Zoonotic Diseases: Community based interventions for prevention and control of NZDs will be held at the World Health Organization Headquarters in Geneva from 23 to 24 November 2010.

By Invitation only.

For the last few years, the One Health concept has brought together experts working in the areas of animal and human disease. One Health has provided a new synthesis for public health and veterinary communities, particularly in the United States of America, Europe and Australia .

However, there is an urgent need and a growing interest to broaden the agenda to incorporate a truly global perspective and to include environmental issues.

This 1st International One Health Congress will achieve these goals by focusing clearly on the risks and challenges brought about by the interactions between animal and human health and the environment.  It will consider these in the general context of the science and research being undertaken, but critically it will focus on the outcomes that need to be achieved to effectively manage the growing risks to global health.

This Congress will define the current situation, and based on this knowledge, develop a vision of the major public health issues and needs for the next 15 years.

We must ensure our planet remains healthy for our children and our children’s children.

• Visit homepage http://onehealth2011.com/
• Registration now open, click for details http://www.onehealth2011.com/email/index2.htm

Please note that the deadline for abstracts for this conference in Melbourne has now been extended by one week.

American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene – 59th Annual Meeting – Marriott Atlanta Marquis Hotel, Atlanta, Georgia (USA)

A symposium organized jointly by members of the ASTMH and the Society for Tropical Veterinary Medicine (STVM) and deals with the broad subject of One Health.

The Symposium focuses on vaccines, considered the most cost effective means of disease prevention. The role of vaccines in preventing the spread of disease from animals to humans will be explored. Speakers will address examples where vaccination in animal species (livestock, poultry and wildlife) for zoonotic disease agents is used or could be used in order to reduce the risk of human disease.

• http://www.astmh.org/

WORLD VETERINARY CONGRESS 2011 IN CAPE TOWN, 10-14 October, promises to be the proverbial pot of gold at the end of the South African rainbow nation.

This prestigious event will welcome veterinarians, para-veterinarians, other health-care professionals and their families from Africa and around the world to South Africa’s premier tourist destination city.

The theme “CARING FOR ANIMALS: HEALTHY COMMUNITIES” lends itself to fulfilling a global need and sets the scene for a varied, stimulating, multi-session scientific and professional programme, to cater for the diverse needs of a multi-disciplined veterinary profession. With more than a century of organised veterinary science, South Africa has an important role to play in the dissemination of knowledge across the continent and the globe.

The focus will be on food production, safety and security as well as disease control in communities served by the veterinary profession. The continuing professional development needs of veterinary clinicians will also be comprehensively catered for. This will be the most extensive veterinary scientific showcase ever offered in Africa.

• http://www.worldvetcongress2011.com/

The ICONZ Annual – Project Co-ordination Meeting will take place in at the Imperial Botanical Beach Hotel, Entebbe, Uganda 25th May – 27th May.

This will be followed by a Workshop for WP8 INTEGRATED INTERVENTION PACKAGES FOR NEGLECTED VECTOR-BORNE ZOONOSES at the Imperial Botanical Beach Hotel, Entebbe, Uganda on Friday 28th May.

The World Association for the Advancement of Veterinary Parasitology Conference (WAAVP) in 2011 will be held in Buenos Aires, Argentina from 21-15 August 2011. Scholarships are available to assist young Veterinary Parasitologists from Africa to attend. Please see PDF for details as to how to apply:

• WAAVP AF [PDF 45KB]
• http://www.waavp.org/node/41

Hosted by Professor Maria Vang Johansen and the WHO/FAO Collaborating Center for Neglected Parasitic Zoonoses, Section for Parasitology, Health and Development (see Agenda PDF).

This meeting is an important follow-up to the very successful inaugural meeting held in Portugal in 2008.

The Inaugural meeting report can be accessed at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2634644/?log%24=activity (see Proceedings PDF).

• Agenda: Second European T. solium Taeniasis-Cysticercosis Meeting [PDF 94KB]
• Proceedings: OeirasCysticercosis Meeting March 2008 [PDF 332KB]

This meeting brought together policy makers, international organisations, academics and civil society for to discuss the economic and political issues that cause tensions between the human health and wildlife and livestock sectors which can impede collaborative action. Infectious disease-causing agents are transported around the world in humans, insects, animals and animal products, and food. With growing economic integration, labour, migration and trade expansion, the detection and prevention of emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) is of increasing global concern. It is not sufficient for national governments to focus only on infectious diseases within their borders if they are to protect and promote their economic and public health security. International cooperation is needed for global alert and response, at times including trade and agricultural measures to minimise risks. Technical solutions to these challenges are being developed under the International Health Regulations (2005) as part of the global response.

To view the background Working Paper EERG/CGHS: 01/10 Achieving Effective Inter-Sectoral Collaboration to Prevent, Detect and Control the Emergence and Spread of Zoonotic Diseases Marguerite Pappaioanou Executive Director, Association of American Veterinary Colleges agenda and meeting report please see: http://www.chathamhouse.org.uk/events/view/-/id/1425/.

• Chatham House Meeting Report [PDF 188KB]

This forum is designed to bring together stakeholders working on finding new therapeutics for diseases prevalent in developing countries to examine and discuss strategies and best practices for solving the major challenges that prevent faster and more effective solutions.

There has been a significant increase in the level of activity and attention being paid to the development of therapeutics for neglected diseases over the past five years, but there are still considerable challenges in the road ahead. Diseases in the developed world receive a disproportional investment because of the commercial potential from large markets and the ability to pay for such treatment. Innovative approaches are being developed to stimulate interest and provide incentives for companies and other researchers to work on finding new therapeutics for diseases prevalent in developing countries.

The conference program will deal with topics such as strategies to improve collaboration with academics; ways to increase the contributions of companies in developing countries; leveraging opportunities in developed markets to support neglected disease products; development of vaccines, anti-virals and other anti-infectives; different models for funding and incentives for research and development; and more. The conference will feature speakers with first-hand experience in developing and commercializing therapeutics for diseases with reduced profitability. Speakers will talk from first-hand experience about what works and what doesn’t as the program explores the most important new models, key issues, challenges and best practices of drug development for neglected diseases.

For more information please visit:

• http://www.healthtech.com/ngl

One of the objectives of the Commission funded FP7 DISCONTOOLS Disease Control Tools Project project is to identify and evaluate new technologies. It is important to ensure that current and newly developing technological advances are used to maximum effect in the development of new and improved tools to control major diseases of animals. The project is developing methodologies to ensure that new technologies are identified quickly and evaluated to assess their potential contribution to the development of more effective tools for the control of priority diseases. This will be achieved partly by using literature reviews and establishing a panel of experts from different disease and speciality backgrounds.

“New Technologies: The Future” began with a presentation on how to detect and deploy innovation. This provided a general background to the philosophy of innovation and its application. This was followed by a series of presentations from representatives of a number of diverse industries and activities which included diagnostics, nanotechnology, mobile phone, machinery, information systems and decision sciences in using mobile payments. Each of the presentations was followed by a discussion. The workshop was intended to obtain a broad overview of the way in which a range of different and diverse industries identified, evaluated and used the new technologies. Details of the workshop and the presentations are on the DISCINTOOLS web site. Work package 4 http://www.discontools.eu/home/structure_home/grp/1069

See workshop agenda http://www.discontools.eu/documents/1212_Agenda%20-%20WP4%20Workshop%20Final.pdf

This workshop is of relevance to the ICONZ project where the aim is to develop the most effective methods for controlling neglected zoonoses. Any mechanism which helps to identify and evaluate new technologies will be of assistance in this objective. Close links between the two projects DISCONTOOLS and ICONZ will lead to synergies and avoid duplication of effort. The workshop was attended by a number of the participants in the ICONZ project.

The PDF describes the DISCONTOOLS project.

J M Scudamore 24 January 2010

• FP7 Project Summary for ICONZ [DOC 52KB]

The UNICEF/UNDP/World Bank/WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR) has created several Disease Reference Groups (DRGs) to analyze and prioritize research needs for infectious diseases of poverty as part of its knowledge management objective through engagement with stakeholders and disease endemic countries.

The disease reference group (DRG 6) ZOOM-IN will synthesize and harmonize relevant research evidence and identify gaps to facilitate priority setting for infectious diseases of poverty. It will advocate for enhanced research capacity within the countries where the diseases are endemic.

The outcome of the work of the DRG will lead to the publication of report in which will contribute to the Global Report for Research on Diseases of Poverty in 2011.

The scope of the DRG 6 comprises thematic and disease areas.

• Infectious diseases of poverty arising from interactions at the human–animal health interface (zoonotic infections).
• Infectious diseases of poverty that have been traditionally understudied and whose occurrence is compounded by environmental, social and political determinants
• Infectious diseases of poverty which are amenable to interventions and could benefit from an Integrated approach which recognizes social determinants as a key driver of disease-associated poverty
• Infectious diseases which could be investigated within the context of health systems research and which are likely to be influenced by community-based and behavioral change interventions as well as by strengthening of national and international commitment to their control
• Infectious diseases of poverty with limited existing diagnostic tools and interventions, limited Surveillance capacity and information, and which lack effective monitoring and evaluation Methodologies

Scope of diseases for the DRG:

• This includes zoonotic diseases (parasitic, viral and bacterial), some diarrhoeal diseases and opportunistic infections and foodborne trematodes.

Dr Helena Ngowi (Tanzania) and Dr Arve Lee Willingham (Denmark) are members of DRG 6 ZOOM – IN.

• Concept note for the first meeting of ZOOM-IN [PDF 80KB]

DFID convened a workshop to examine the proposition that the identification of potential hotspots for the emergence of zoonoses has the potential to lead to the identification of interventions which would mitigate that risk.

Background and Introduction: The topic of zoonoses is one area where there may be important gaps in our knowledge that potentially have huge impact on development and health. After initial research by a senior research fellow, DFID believes that identification of potential hotspots for emergence of zoonoses has the potential to lead to the identification of interventions which could mitigate that risk. The rationale is that livestock systems are changing and these changes are impacting the risks related to disease spread. Examples of changes include: rapidly increasing demand, increased global trading in livestock and their products and livestock impacts on natural resource availability

DFID’s proposition is that diseases, such as highly pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI), with global economic impact (emerging zoonoses) could be of interest to developed countries who might be prepared to invest in mitigating risks in countries with such hotspots, while diseases such as Tuberculosis (neglected zoonoses) which impact mostly on the local poor would be of more interest to investment decision makers in international development donor organisations.

The workshop was held over a single day, with presentations in the morning session, and discussion groups and a plenary session in the afternoon. An agenda for the workshop, list of participants, the presentations and outcomes of the discussions can be found in the PDF of the proceedings.

• Proceedings of the technical workshop [PDF 4.2MB]

The Meeting Report PDF can be accessed from the WP12 Work Area in the Members Area.

This workshop will consider how control and prevention of the neglected bacterial zoonoses, anthrax, bovine tuberculosis and brucellosis and the dog / small ruminant-associated neglected zoonoses, cystic echinococcosis, leishmaniasis and rabies may be improved through the development of integrated intervention strategies. Representatives of ICONZ international cooperation partner countries (ICPCs) focusing on these disease clusters will consider how these intervention strategies may be developed, evaluated and refined in the context of their in-country case studies. In addition, relevant disease control tools will be discussed as will approaches to using the case studies to obtain standardized information on burden of disease and benefits of control, as well as engagement of local communities and other relevant stakeholders and policy makers, taking into account economic, sociological and cultural aspects related to the diseases as well as the traditional knowledge.

See provisional programme for more details.

• Draft Agenda [PDF 36KB]

http://www.cwgesa.org/

See agenda for more details.

• CWGESA Agenda [PDF 388KB] (revised file)

This workshop will overview the current country situations on Cysticercosis/Taeniosis Knowledge and Control in Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia, Uganda and Nigeria.

Activities will focus on Surveillance and Elimination of Cysticercosis/ Taeniosis in Africa and will cover examination of the tools for diagnosis of infections; Surveys and Surveillance; Best Practices for Elimination of Cysticercosis, Educational and Sanitational Interventions, Pig Husbandry and Veterinary Public Health Interventions.

Participants are invited to address the National gaps in knowledge on cysticercosis and its control and consider appropriate tools and inteventions to address the gaps identified.

See provisional program for more details.

• Agenda WP7 Workshop [PDF 80KB]

We are very pleased that every African partner country has sent a scientist who will be actively involved in the work on assessing the burden of zoonoses and the cost of their control in field work their country. Those attending are: Doctors Mamadou Niang (Mali), Mohammed Bouslikhane (Morocco), Claudio Gule (Mozambique), Reuben Adama Ocholi (Nigeria), Athumani Msalale Lupindu (Tanzania), Denis Muhanguzi (Uganda) and Chummy S. Sikasunge (Zambia).

See the Training page for additional information.

The inaugural meeting marking the official start of the ICONZ project was hosted by the project coordinator (University of Edinburgh) 13-15 May 2009. The meeting was attended by representatives from 15 out of the 21 partner institutes from Europe and Africa. With some of the partners meeting in person for the first time, the meeting provided a fantastic platform for exchange of knowledge between international experts on neglected zoonoses and control strategies. This combined expertise resulted in good progress towards planning and implementation of cases studies and workpackages. The first management board meeting was also held as part of the ICONZ meeting. The inaugural ICONZ meeting provided great momentum to the project, and organization of the individual workpackage workshops is now well underway.