20th International Congress on Infectious Diseases (ICID)
3 – 6 December, CTICC, Cape Town, South Africa
ISID publishes annual and quarterly word clouds based on ProMED’s infectious disease surveillance where the size of each word indicates the frequency with which a ProMED report was published on the topic. Click on the image to zoom in.
Note: word size does not indicate the size of an outbreak nor its exact location on a continent.
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Speakers:
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
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
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
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
Experts:
Tan Ban Hock, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore
Sipho Dlamini, South Africa
Experts:
Mona ElShokry, Egypt
Selisha Naidoo, South Africa
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Dr Oluchi Mbamalu is a Senior Lecturer in the Division of Global Surgery at the University of Cape Town. She is a pharmacist with undergraduate (BPharm) and postgraduate degrees (MPharm, PhD) in Pharmaceutical Sciences. Her experiences span academia, research and pharmacy practice across different sectors in two different regions. She has mentored students in academia, research and pharmacy practice.
Oluchi has a keen interest in wider stakeholder engagement for improved infection care, with a focus on understanding and addressing barriers to patient and community engagement and awareness of infection risks, especially antimicrobial resistant infection risks. This interest has seen her involved in patient- and community-centred infection care initiatives, where she highlights the position of the pharmacist in such engagement. She is the lead investigator on a project to explore and advance patient and public/community engagement in infection care, funded by the National Research Foundation.
Professor of Pharmacy Practice The Ohio State University College of Pharmacy
Infectious Diseases Specialist, Global Antibiotic Stewardship
The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center
Dr. Goff is an Infectious Diseases Clinical Pharmacist, Professor of Pharmacy Practice and Antibiotic Stewardship Ambassador for The Ohio State University (OSU) Global One Health Institute in Columbus Ohio, USA. She is an awarding winning global “change maker” in infectious diseases. Dr. Goff is one of twenty-five global health experts selected by the World Health Organization (WHO) to implement antibiotic stewardship programs in low middle-income countries. Dr. Goff is the Program Director for the Train the Trainer Antibiotic Stewardship Mentoring Program founded in 2012 with South African pharmacists and physicians. Her program continues to expand to include neonatal ASP and other countries including Lebanon and six Latin American countries in collaboration with country experts and neonatal experts at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus Ohio. She uses X (Twitter) (@idpharmd) to connect with her 10,000 followers. She has 150 publications and 50 grants.
Angeliki Messina is the Head: Digital Clinical Pharmacy of the Netcare Group. Her qualifications include, a B.Pharm (with distinction) and M.Pharm both from the University of the Witwatersrand. Angeliki obtained advanced certification in antibiotic stewardship through the Making a Difference in Infectious Diseases organisation (USA). During her time at Netcare she has co-designed, implemented and managed the Groups’ Antibiotic Stewardship program and is the pharmacy stream lead for the design and implementation of the organisations electronic medical record. Additionally, Angeliki has designed, implemented, and managed three antimicrobial stewardship mobile applications for Netcare hospitals. She has authored and co-authored numerous publications in peer reviewed international academic journals on various successful prospective audit and feedback stewardship initiatives for improvement. Her work has been acknowledged via the receipt of numerous awards including the Discovery Healthcare quality award, the Best Care Always Health systems Improvement Award and the FIDSSA Young Investigator Award.
Professor Asha Bowen is a clinician scientist working across the Perth Children’s Hospital as a paediatric infectious disease specialist and the Telethon Kids Institute as Head of the Healthy Skin and ARF Prevention Team. Asha and her team recently launched the second edition of the National Healthy Skin Guideline to guide clinicians in the recognition and evidence-based treatment of skin infections. Asha has more than 10 years’ experience leading infectious diseases research and investigator-initiated clinical trials focused on issues significant to Aboriginal child health and ARF prevention.
Dr Yenew Kebede Tebeje is a medical microbiologist and public health expert with 20 years of clinical, teaching, laboratory science, research, capacity building, and programme design and management experience. His achievements include building laboratory systems in low-income countries, human resource capacity development, and development of policy frameworks and guidelines that impact laboratory programmes in Africa. Dr Tebeje currently serves as Head of Division of Laboratory Systems at Africa CDC where he leads programmes to strengthen public health laboratory systems and networks in Africa. In this capacity, he coordinates the establishment and strengthening of regional integrated surveillance and laboratory networks, creation of frameworks for cross-border specimen transportation, geo-mapping of laboratory functions, implementation of biosafety and biosecurity standards, use of point of care technologies and connected diagnostics to strengthen surveillance at community level, and implementation of laboratory quality management systems. He also leads initiatives by Africa CDC and partners to advance the use of laboratory diagnostics for universal health coverage and implementation of health security in Africa. Before joining Africa CDC, Dr Tebeje worked for more than 12 years as Technical Officer and later as Branch Chief for Laboratory at the US CDC in Ethiopia, where he provided strategic leadership for one of the most successful laboratory systems development programmes of the US CDC. Dr Tebeje worked as assistant lecturer, lecturer and later as assistant professor at Gondar College of Medical Science, University of Gondar. He was recognized several times for his outstanding contributions, including the Mission Honor Award, Meritorious Honor Award and US CDC Center for Global Health Director’s Award. He has written lecture notes on microbiology, immunology and parasitology and authored and co-authored more than 30 articles in peer-reviewed journals. Dr Tebeje holds a Doctor of Medicine degree from Gondar College of Medical Sciences, a master’s degree in medical microbiology from Addis Ababa University, and a Master of Public Health degree from the University of Gondar.
Auss Abbood is a data scientist at the Robert Koch Institute, Germany’s national public health institute, and holds a master's degree in cognitive science from the University of Osnabrück. Passionate about public health surveillance, he has made significant contributions to German surveillance activities, most notably by developing a system to monitor intensive care unit capacity during the pandemic. His expertise has also contributed to the assessment of foreign public health threats, providing critical analysis for the implementation of travel restrictions.
Since his master's degree, he has been fascinated by the use of natural language processing to improve surveillance, which has led to innovative projects aimed at improving event-based surveillance. He is currently cooperating with the WHO Pandemic Hub, where he and his team are applying AI methods to improve signal detection with the Epidemic Intelligence from Open Sources (EIOS) system
Rokhaya Diagne is a student of Computer Science in Senegal with a fervent passion for leveraging technology to address pressing global health challenges. With a major focus on health applied to technology, she has actively engaged in projects aimed at enhancing disease detection and management. Rokhaya's professional journey includes groundbreaking work in malaria classification using innovative digital microscopy and contributions to underwater species classification for environmental conservation efforts. Her commitment to excellence and innovation has earned her recognition, including prestigious awards and participation in renowned conferences
Richard joined CARB-X following almost 20 years in large pharma Infection R&D teams followed by 4 years at a small antibacterial biotech company where he supported the progression of small molecule compounds from discovery through to late-stage clinical development and registration. He obtained his PhD in molecular microbiology from the University of Adelaide, and prior to joining industry he had two post-doctoral positions in the AMR area, one in Australia and one in Canada. He currently serves as the Chief Scientist at CARB-X, a global non-profit organization that supports a diverse and innovative pipeline of traditional and non-traditional products to prevent, diagnose, and treat infections caused by drug-resistant bacterial pathogens.
Douglas Scarsi is a seasoned professional serving as the Senior Director, Client Services at Hybrid Healthcare Communications. Joining Hybrid in 2011, Douglas brought with him a wealth of experience and a commitment to delivering exceptional service. Over the past 12 years, he has played a pivotal role in collaborating with numerous clients, overseeing projects ranging from conventions to state-of-the-art digital engagement assets.
His dedication to client success, coupled with his ability to navigate complex projects with finesse, exemplifies his leadership within the healthcare communications industry. His relentless pursuit of innovation continues to drive positive outcomes for his clients.
Research of Stefan Kaufmann focuses on infection biology. He combines basic research and clinical studies for better understanding of protection and pathology of intracellular bacterial infections and for the rational design of novel intervention measures against diseases caused by these pathogens. His research led to the characterization of biosignatures for prediction of active tuberculosis and a novel tuberculosis vaccine which is in several phase III trials for safety and protective efficacy.
Stefan Kaufmann is Founding Director Emeritus of the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin, Emeritus Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences in Göttingen, and Senior Professor at the Charité University Clinics in Berlin, Germany as well as Faculty Fellow of the Hagler Institute for Advanced Study at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, USA.
He published > 1000 publications mostly in high-ran