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1^st Intergovernmental Global Conference on Infectious Diseases 'Osong Symposium' held by NIH

- National response systems and action strategies will be discussed from 1st Nov. to 3rd

- Global cooperation network among domestic and foreign disease research institutes on infectious diseases is expected to be established

National Institute of Health, Korea (http://www.nih.go.kr, Director General Jo, Myung Chan) will be holding 2011 Osong Symposium on Infectious Diseases (OSID 2011), an intergovernmental global conference, between 1 Nov. and 3.

In the wake of the US•Korea Health Ministers meeting held earlier in March this year where the two nations made an agreement to cooperate in tackling major infectious diseases, e.g., jointly developing pandemic influenza vaccines, and diagnosing and treating multidrug-resistant TB, etc,   

This symposium is being held to exchange research information on major infectious diseases and promote collaborative research.

At the symposium, national response systems toward major infectious diseases are expected to be established, mid and long-term intergovernmental R&D strategies and implementation will be discussed and a global research cooperation network is anticipated to be built through exchange of the latest research status and information.

Osong Symposium program will consist of plenary lectures and special lectures on four topics, and independent sessions as well as working-group discussions per each topic will be carried out.

The four topics include ①directions in vaccine development, ②responses on influenza pandemics, ③ the latest study and research on TB, and ④ research on climate change and new infectious diseases. More details will be presented and discussed as below. 

Dr. Jee, Young Mee from WHO/WPRO is scheduled to deliver a keynote address on Asia’s laboratory-based responses on infectious diseases preventable with vaccine. 

Dr. Jonathan Yewdell will offer a special lecture on molecular modeling study on the new influenza virus antigen.

At the working-group session on the final day, in-depth discussion on future cooperation and joint research for a project conducted by NIH’s Vaccine Research Center and establishment of an Asian network for monitoring of new infectious diseases and studying of response measures will take place.

In addition, around 40 experts in infectious diseases from nine different countries including US NIH, Japan, Russia, China, Mongol, and Taiwan will gather to have intense discussions.

NIH Director General Cho, Myung Chan pointed out, “In order to effectively deal with infectious diseases that are currently rapidly spreading throughout the world, cooperation among domestic and foreign research institutes is essential.” 

He also added, “Osong Symposium will be a great opportunity for establishing national response systems and enhancing our competitiveness in tackling infectious diseases,”  and “We will eventually expand the conference to cover not only infectious diseases but also chronic and genetic diseases, making it a Korea’s landmark event.”