Chaired by:
Thomas J. Kindt, NIAID

Main Auditorium, Natcher Conference Center

The past decades have witnessed serious challenges to public health in the form of emergent and re-emergent infectious diseases. Some of these, such as HIV/AIDS, persistently threaten entire continents; others, such as influenza, recur unpredictably in terms of time, place, and severity. Certain emerging diseases, such as West Nile Fever and Lyme disease, are transmitted to human populations by insects that share our habitat. New diseases, such as SARS, arise and spread rapidly and demand immediate efforts to control. Food supplies are threatened by prion-related diseases such as Mad-cow disease, which require study of vaguely understood pathogens. This symposium will include an overview of the topic of emerging and re-emerging diseases and means by which they spread as well as more detailed accounts of ongoing efforts to understand and combat these serious challenges to public health.

Program

Emerging and Re-Emerging Diseases: Research Challenges in the 21st Century
Anthony S. Fauci, NIAID

Insect Vectors that Bear Emerging Diseases
José M. C. Ribeiro, NIAID

The Development and Application of Animal Models of SARS
Kanta Subbarao, NIAID

Overview of Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies or Prions Diseases
Bruce Chesebro, NIAID