5th International Conference on Global Health kicks off at FIU

Dr. Philderald Pratt of Liberia addresses the 5th International Conference on Global Health

The continuing health challenges posed by Ebola kicked off the 5th International Conference on Global Health (formerly known as the International Tropical Medicine Conference) at the MARC Pavilion May 19.

Dr. Philderald E. Pratt, assistant representative in Liberia of the United Nations Population Fund, was the keynote speaker. Pratt reminded the audience of doctors, scientists and students “what happened in Liberia is something that could happen anywhere.”

Liberia has been one of the hot zones in the 2014-15 Ebola outbreak; nearly 5,000 Liberians have lost their lives, including doctors, nurses and other health care workers tending to the sick. On March 9, 2015, the World Health Organization declared Liberia Ebola-free—there have been no new cases since March—however, the outbreak has, according to Pratt, “ruined an already fragile economy” that had not quite recovered from a 14-year-old civil war, and the threat is not over entirely. Neighboring Sierra Leone and Guinea still have not conquered the outbreak. Pratt asked the global community to help in his country’s post-Ebola recovery efforts, and emphasized the need for more vaccine research.

For the past five years, the annual conference has brought together doctors and scientists, world-renowned experts in their fields, to FIU to present, analyze and discuss state-of-the-art risk analysis and epidemiology, clinical and scientific progress, and advances in drug and vaccine development of serious and threatening tropical and emerging infections. The event’s main sponsor Sanofi Pasteur is the largest company in the world devoted entirely to vaccines. Its candidate dengue vaccine is currently undergoing phase III clinical trials.

Dengue fever is transmitted by a mosquito common in the southeastern United States and the tropics. Last year, Miami-Dade County led the state of Florida with 29 cases of dengue, some of them locally acquired.

Other featured speakers at the conference include:
• Consuelo Beck-Sague, M.D., FIU Robert Stempel College of Public Health
• Matthew DeGennaro, Ph.D., FIU College of Arts and Sciences
• Aileen Marty, M.D., FIU Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine
• João Bosco Sequeira, Jr., M.D., Ministry of Health, Brazil
• Daniel Stamboulian, M.D., Fundación Centro de Estudios Infectológicos (FUNCEI), Argentina
• Ciro Ugarte, M.D., Pan-American Health Organization, WHO
• Ingrid Rabe, M.B.Ch.B, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

The three-day Conference on Global Health wraps up Friday, May 21.