Volume 24, No. 3 - September 1999                     Published by the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases

For a third consecutive year, the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID) jointly sponsored New and Reemerging Infectious Diseases: A Clinical Course, June 5-7, 1999, in Atlanta, GA with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Emory University School of Medicine.

A faculty of renowned experts spoke to a diverse group of over 160 participants, including infectious disease specialists, internists, pediatricians, and family practitioners.

"A number of factors such as economic globalization and microbial adaptation mean that today's clinicians are responsible for recognizing and managing not only more infectious disease cases, but a broader range of such diseases," said NFID Senior Executive Director William J. Martone, MD. "Participants at all levels of infectious disease expertise have let us know that this course successfully serves the very significant educational need resulting from this trend."

The purpose of the course, which offered 20 Continuing Medical Education credits, was to bring together the foremost infectious disease specialists to present clinical and epidemiologic information on current or emerging infectious disease problems. By relying on faculty expertise from Emory and CDC as well as other institutions nationwide, the course was able to focus on the epidemiology, recognition, treatment, and management of a number of disease areas and specific diseases.

Attendees were provided with the latest information not only about common infections such as influenza and acute otitis media, but also about emerging diseases such as Hepatitis C and dengue. Experts also discussed the latest research into more abstract yet still worrisome threats, such as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies ("mad cow disease") and disease outbreaks which might result from bioterrorist activity.

Several sessions focused on population-specific infections, such as those affecting hospital patients, the elderly and the young. Participants were also given insight into the latest diagnostic methods, the status of research into new vaccines and new antimicrobials, and up-to-date methods for the management of HIV and HIV-associated infections.

The course featured a series of interactive clinical case presentations by which participants could apply information presented by the faculty. Utilizing audience response technology provided by Merck U.S. Human Health, participants were guided through a series of clinical scenarios based upon actual infectious disease cases seen at Grady Memorial Hospital, the Atlanta Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and Emory University School of Medicine. Panels of faculty members analyzed the responses, providing a context in which to clarify and reinforce important points from their presentations. Since their introduction last year, the case presentations have come to be one of the most popular features of the course.

Robert P. Gaynes, MD, chief, Nosocomial Infections Surveillance Activity, CDC, David Rimland, MD, professor of medicine, Emory University School of Medicine, and chief of infectious diseases at the Atlanta Veterans Affairs Medical Center, David S. Stephens, MD, professor of medicine and director, Division of Infectious Diseases, Emory University School of Medicine, and Dr. Martone were course co-chairs.

This program was supported, in part, by unrestricted educational grants from Abbott Laboratories, Agouron Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Bayer Corporation, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Gilead Sciences, Glaxo Wellcome Inc., Hoechst Marion Roussel, Inc., Kimberly-Clark Corporation, Merck U.S. Human Health, Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical, Pasteur Mérieux Connaught, Pfizer Inc., Pharmacia & Upjohn, Inc., Rhone-Poulenc Rorer Inc., Roche Pharmaceuticals, Schering-Plough Research Institute, SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals, and Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories.