Closing Remarks

Plenary (P6): Emerging and Re-emerging Issues in STIs

Policy Session (P4): Policy Discussion – Advancing Clinical Trials

Scientific (S28): New Targets and Approaches to Vaccines

Chair:

Robert Heyderman

New targets and approaches to vaccines
Mohammed Abdulaziz - Africa CDC, Ethiopia

NITAG Support Hub (NISH)- Innovative Approach to Supporting Vaccines Decision-Making in Africa
Benjamin Kagina - University of Cape Town, South Africa

Scientific (S27): Dengue

Chair:

Paul Tambyah - Singapore

Challenges in Clinical Management of Dengue
Priscila Rupali - Christian Medical College Vellore, India

Codon-Optimized Genome Recoding: A Genetically Stable Live Attenuated Flavivirus Vaccine
Justin Chu - National University of Singapore, Singapore

Epidemics of Dengue and Reemergence of Chikungunya in Latin America
Alfonso Javier Rodriguez-Morales - Fundacion Universitaria Autonoma de las Americas, Colombia

Oral Abstract Presentations (09)

Scientific (S26): AMR Surveillance and Diagnostic

Chair:

Connie Walyaro

Speakers:

Talk Title - TBD
Tom Ashfield - The Sign Post, UK

AMR Surveillance in Africa: Are We There Yet?
Sabiha Yusuf Essack - University of Kwazulu Natal, South Africa

CARB-X – Accelerating the Development of Novel Tools against AMR
Richard Alm - CARB-X, USA

Policy Session (PD3): Policy Discussion – Sources of Funding

Scientific (S25): Biomedical Interventions on STI Prevention

Speakers:

Prevention of Haemophilus ducreyi infections: one organism, two stories
Stan Spinola - Indiana University School Of Medicine, USA

Advances in biomedical prevention for STIs
Sinead Delany-Moretlwe - University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa

Scientific (S24): Fungal Resistance, Diagnostics, and Therapy Updates

Chair:

Afreenish Amir - Pakistan

Speakers:

Human monoclonal antibodies targeting novel, fungal cell wall proteins offer superior therapeutic efficacy in a preclinical model of infection
Soumya Payilli - University of Aberdeen, UK

Amplifying the ‘F’ word: The rise of drug-resistant fungi in Africa
Iriagbonse I. Osaigbovo - UBTH: University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Nigeria

Vaginal Candida spp. colonization, infection and drug susceptibility in adult women- a clinical study
Fingani Mphande - King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, Thailand

Oral Abstract Presentations (O8)

Scientific (S23): Antimicrobials and Vaccines – Equitable Global Access

Speakers:

Talk Title - TBD
Fatima Hassan - Health Justice Initiative (HJI), South Africa

Talk Title - TBD
Tom Ashfield - The Sign Post, UK

Accelerating access to antibiotics – a model to address existing and new antibiotics
Kim Faure - Global Antibiotic R&D Partnership (GARDP), South Africa

Plenary (P5): Pandemic Preparedness

Meet-the-Expert (M8): Career in Public Health/Global Health

Meet-the-Expert (M7): Neonatal Infections

Meet-the-Expert (M6): Meet ProMED

Scientific (S10): What’s new in mycobacteriology?

Scientific (S7): Rabies: Key Areas

Rabies in seals in the Western Cape, an unprecedented event
Lucille Blumberg - National Institute for Communicable Disease (NICD), South Africa

Talk Title - TBD
Thumbi Mwangi - Washington State University, Kenya

Lessons learned from scaling up dog vaccination against rabies in Tanzania
Maganga Sambo - Ifakara Health Institute, Tanzania

Scientific (S6): Global Genomic ID Surveillance and Response

Chair:

Nicholas Feasey - St Andrews University, UK

Speakers:

Pathogen genomics in the future of Public Health: a global perspective
Josefina Campos - World Health Organisation (WHO), Argentina

Integrating genomics and diagnostics in the detection and control of infectious diseases
Deborah Williamson - UK Health Security Agency, UK

Utility of environmental surveillance of pathogens in Malawi
Nicholas Feasey - St Andrews University, UK

Scientific (S5): Enteric Infections

Chair:

Yahaya Mohammed - Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital, Nigeria

Speakers:

Rising Tide of Antibiotic Resistance in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Meta-Analysis of Vibrio cholerae Susceptibility (2014-2024)
Yahaya Mohammed - Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital, Nigeria

Impact of typhoid conjugate vaccine (TCV) against culture confirmed typhoid in Sindh, Pakistan
Farah Naz Qamar - Aga Khan University, Pakistan

Parasitic Diarrhoea: an Overview
John Frean - National Institute for Communicable Diseases, South Africa

Unusual Antibiotics Resistant Two-Strain Cholera Outbreak in Lebanon, 2022-2023
Ghassan M. Matar - American University Of Beirut, Lebanon

Speakers:

Mohammed Nasir Sambo – ABU Zaria, Nigeria

Elizeus Rutebemberwa – Makerere University, Uganda

Kyeng Mercy Tetuh

Scientific (S4): Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Wastewater Surveillance

Speakers:

Scientific (S3): HIV - Hot Topics

Chair:
Adeeba Kamarulzaman

Speakers:

Prevention and treatment of HIV: recent advances and ongoing challenges
Graeme Meintjes – University of Cape Town, South Africa

Advanced HIV as a Neglected Disease
Joe Jarvis – London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK

Glenda Gray – South African Medical Research Council, South Africa

Scientific (S2): ID in Special Situations/Contexts

Chair:

Helena Maltezou – National Public Health Organization, Athens, Greece

Speakers:

Challenges and prospects of managing infectious diseases among pastoral and migrant populations
Abdulrazaq G. Habib – Bayero University Kano, Nigeria

Emerging infections in children
Helena Maltezou – National Public Health Organization, Athens, Greece

Lessons from genomic surveillance of neonatal sepsis in Malawi
Nicholas Feasey – St Andrews University, UK

Plenary (P1): Climate Change and Infectious Diseases

Chair:

Paul Tambyah, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore

Speakers:

Wanjira Mathai, Kenya

Camilo Mora, Department of Geography and Environment, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI, USA

Mahmood Bhutta, UK/Pakistan

Meet-the-Expert (M3): Meet the Editors

Editors:

Lucille Blumberg, National Institute for Communicable Diseases, South Africa
Eskild Petersen, Aarhus University Hospital Institute of Clinical Medicine, Department of Infectious Diseases, Aarhus, Denmark
Moses Bockarie, Sierra Leone

Meet-the-Expert (M2): Infections in Immunocompromised

Experts:

Tan Ban Hock, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore
Sipho Dlamini, South Africa

Meet-the-Expert (M1): Lab Biosafety and Biosecurity

Experts:

Mona ElShokry, Egypt
Selisha Naidoo, South Africa

Scientific (S1): One Health: Surveillance

Chair:

Lucille Blumberg, National Institute for Communicable Diseases, South Africa

Speakers:

One Health surveillance to investigate emerging and reemerging zoonotic arbovirus epidemiology in South Africa
Marietjie Venter – University of Pretoria, South Africa

One-Health surveillance of ticks and tick-borne diseases in Europe: Tick-borne Encephalitis (TBE) as a case study
Annapaola Rizzoli – Fondazione Edmund Mach, Italy

Wolfgang Preiser – Stellenbosch University, South Africa

Jake Hightower

Jake serves as the Data Science Manager for Ruvos, a company specializing in cloud-based data transfer and analytics. The Data Science team unites expertise in computer science, statistics, and AI/ML infrastructure with deep knowledge of the fields of public health and epidemiology to create products and services that help public health agencies. His main interest is advanced modeling, forecasting, and simulation of infectious diseases but enjoys building anything that bridges quality analytics to better serve the global community.

Sasheela Ponnampalavanar

Dr Sasheela Ponnampalavanar (MBBS, MMed, DTM&H) is a Consultant Infectious Disease Physician at the University Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC) and Professor of Medicine at University Malaya, Malaysia. She heads the hospital Infection Control Department and chairs the Antimicrobial Stewardship(AMS) Committee. She was awarded the 2020/2021 Fulbright scholarship, and was attached to the Hospital Epidemiology and Infection Control Department at the John Hopkins Hospital.

As a Committee Member of The Malaysian National Antimicrobial Resistance Committee and Technical Working Group for The National Action Plan for Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) since 2017, she is involved in the development and implementation of national guidelines and training modules related to AMR, AMS and infection prevention and control (IPC).

Her main interest are in AMS , IPC, AMR and healthcare environment hygiene (HEH). She is involved in several local and international research collaborations and published in peer reviewed journals.

Esmita Charani

She is an honorary Associate Professor at the University of Cape Town, a visiting Researcher at Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen, Norway, and an Adjunct Professor at Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Kerala, India, where she is involved in helping implement and investigate national antibiotic stewardship programmes.

After completing her post-graduate training in Cambridge University Hospitals and ten years of experience as a clinical pharmacist in hospitals, Esmita began her research career. In her academic career the focus of her research has been behaviour change interventions in the field of antimicrobial stewardship, and the application of social science research methods to develop contextually relevant solutions. She is an investigator on an NIHR Invention for Innovation award investigating the development and use of a point-of-care personalised clinical decision support tool for antimicrobial prescribing, and is co-investigator on the ESRC award: “Optimising antibiotic use along surgical pathways: addressing antimicrobial resistance and improving clinical outcomes” (in England, Scotland, Rwanda, India & South Africa; 2017-2021).

Her work in antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has been recognised through an Academy of Medical Sciences UK-India AMR Visiting Professor award. She is an expert advisor to the Commonwealth Pharmacy Association and a Global Health Fellow with the Office of the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer, England. She is involved in mentoring and supporting clinical pharmacists to implement antimicrobial stewardship interventions across different healthcare settings and economies. Her doctoral thesis investigated antimicrobial stewardship in India, Norway, France, Burkina Faso and England. She is also the Research Lead for Practice, Design and Engineering at the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit for Healthcare Associated Infections and Antimicrobial Resistance within the Faculty of Medicine at Imperial College London.

Esmita completed her Masters (MPharm Hons) in Pharmacy at University College London, her MSc in Infectious Diseases at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and read for her PhD at Imperial College London.

Mohammed Yahaya

Dr. Mohammed Yahaya is an Associate Professor (Reader) and Consultant Clinical Microbiologist affiliated with the Usmanu Danfodiyo University and Teaching Hospital in Sokoto, Nigeria. He previously served as the Head of Department for both institutions (2018-2022).
Dr. Yahaya boasts of over 17 years of experience tackling infectious disease outbreaks and control. He has significantly contributed to national efforts in polio eradication, routine immunization, antimicrobial resistance prevention, cholera control, HIV/AIDS management, and most recently, the COVID-19 response. Notably, he led the team that identified Dengue fever and West Nile Virus in Sokoto in 2016.
A prolific researcher, Dr. Yahaya has published numerous peer-reviewed articles and presented at several conferences. He is actively involved in teaching and mentoring medical students and postgraduate trainees.
Dr. Yahaya is a respected member of the Nigerian medical community, having won several grants and holding fellowships with National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria and the West African College of Physicians.

Margaret Ip

BM (Soton), MSc, DTM&H, FRCPath, FRCP(Lond & Glasg), FRCPA, FHKCPath, FHKAM(Pathology)

Affiliation:
Professor, Department of Microbiology, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong
Honorary Consultant, Dept of Microbiology, Prince of Wales Hospital, Hong Kong.

Margaret Ip is Professor and Chairman at the Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Chinese University of Hong Kong, and Honorary Consultant in Clinical Microbiology at the New Territories East Cluster of Hospitals of Hospital Authority of Hong Kong. She has over 25 years’ experience in the treatment and laboratory diagnoses of infections. Her research interests focus on molecular epidemiology of drug-resistant pathogens, inc. MRSA, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Streptococcus agalactiae and other multidrug-resistant organisms. She works on new diagnostic tools, microbial genomics and metagenomics and has published over 300 international peer-reviewed papers and 5 book chapters, inc in Lancet, Nat Comm, Clin infect Dis amongst others. She serves as an Advisor and Member of Scientific Committees on antimicrobial resistance and infection control and in Expert groups on GBS with WHO and FAO.

Adrian Brink

Professor Adrian Brink is Head of the Division: Medical Microbiology, and member of the Institute of Infectious Disease & Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town and the National Health Laboratory Services, Groote Schuur hospital, Cape Town, South Africa.

Prof Brink was founding President of the Federation of Infectious Diseases Societies of Southern Africa and is the founder and currently co-chairs the South African Antibiotic Stewardship Program (SAASP).

His is main research interests are the clinical and molecular epidemiology of antibiotic-resistant infections, the mechanisms of resistance as a confounder in antibiotic stewardship, the design and implementation of large-scale antibiotic stewardship, diagnostic stewardship and infection prevention and control interventions in low and middle-income countries. The current focus alsoincludes the protective, metabolic and immune functions of the gastro-intestinal and - vaginal biome Inc. the resistome and metabolome.