Working Group Webinars

Prof. Nina van Sorge is Professor of Translational Microbiology and Head of the Netherlands Reference Laboratory for Bacterial Meningitis.
Nina van Sorge studied Pharmacy at Utrecht University and she performed her PhD research at the University Medical Center Utrecht on the topic of autoantibodies in the pathogenesis of Guillain-Barre syndrome.
After a short-term overseas fellowship and a mini-postdoc studying bacteria-lectin interactions at Utrecht University, she took up a second post-doc position in the lab of Prof. V. Nizet at UCSD to expand her knowledge in bacterial pathogenesis research. She returned to the UMC Utrecht on a MCSA Fellowship in 2012 and started her own research group in 2014 on the topic of bacterial glycobiology. In 2020, she moved her research group to Amsterdam UMC studying bacterial pathogenesis with a special focus on bacterial glycosylation in this process.

Prof. Anuradha Chowdhary is a Professor of Medical Mycology in the Department of Medical Mycology at Vallabhbhai Patel Chest Institute, University of Delhi, India. Prof. Chowdhary is a member of the ISAC Executive Committee. Her research focus on antifungal resistance, molecular typing and epidemiology of emerging pathogenic fungi. Prof. Chowdhary’s latest research concerns the understanding of the emergence of multidrug resistant strains of Candida auris. This yeast which has globally emerged as a nosocomial pathogen is a serious therapeutic challenge and similar geographical clonal strains of C. auris are emerging in other countries. Her research has additionally yielded important insights into the ecological niches of Cryptococcus and the mechanism and spread of multi azole resistant Aspergillus fumigatus.

Prof. Alex Soriano is a Consultant of Infectious Diseases in the Infectious Diseases Department of the Clinical and Provincial Hospital of Barcelona, Spain, since 2001. He studied medicine at the University of Barcelona from where he also received his Ph.D. in Medicine. His main research interest is in severe infections caused by Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, as well as the diagnosis and treatment of foreign-body infections, with a particular interest in prosthetic joint infections. In recent years, Alex has studied the effectiveness of combination therapy versus monotherapy, using a third-generation cephalosporin in bacteraemic Pneumococcal pneumonia. He has suggested that therapy with a cephalosporin plus a macrolide or a fluoroquinolone is associated with a lower mortality rate compared with β-lactams. Alex has also been involved in utilising new antibiotics against Gram-positive bacteria and in the use of antibiotics against erythromycin-susceptible and -resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae. He has authored several book chapters and over 300 peer-reviewed publications and is currently the Vice President of the European Bone and Joint Infection Society (EBJIS) and Co-editor in Chief of Infectious Diseases and Therapy.

Prof. Souha Kanj is a tenured Professor of Medicine at the American University of Beirut Medical Center, Lebanon, and Consulting Professor at the Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, USA. She is currently President-Elect of ISAC, Head of the Division of Infectious Diseases, Chair of the Infection Control and Prevention Program, Co- Chair of the Antimicrobial Stewardship Program and Associate Dean for Global Affairs at the American University of Beirut Medical Center. Prof. Kanj has published more than 230 papers in national and international journals such as Mycoses, Infection, Lancet Infectious Diseases and the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). She has contributed greatly to the work of the World Health Organization (WHO) in various programs, such as the R&D Blueprint Annual Review of Priority Diseases, the Global Infection Prevention and Control Network, and the WHO Priority Pathogens List Project for Antimicrobial Resistant Bacteria.

Chairs
Prof. Pierre Tattevin / Prof. Heiman Wertheim

1. Estimating the global burden of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and how this evidence is informing new studies
   Dr Catrin Moore (UK)
2. Potential use of C-Reactive Protein testing to optimise community use of antibiotics
   Dr Do Thi Thuy Nga (Vietnam)
3. International Centre for Antimicrobial Resistance Solutions (ICARS): Partnering for impact
   Dr Nandini Sreenivasan (Denmark)
4. Antimicrobial resistance in Honiara, Solomon Islands
   Dr Bianca Graves (Australia)
5. Prevalence and drivers of over-the-counter antibiotic sales among community drug outlets to develop mitigatory behaviour change interventions
   Dr Joseph Acolatse (Ghana)
6. Optimised doses of polymyxins to improve outcomes for on-critically ill and critically ill patients with multidrug-resistant (MDR) Gram-negative bacterial infections
   Dr Puteri Zamri (Malaysia)

Chairs
Jian Li / Jaime Lora-Tomayo

1. Clinical trials of new antibiotics: Innovations and challenges
   David Paterson 
2. Defining antibiotic treatment duration - experience from a multicentre randomised trial in Asia
   Mo-Yin
3. Clinical trial networks to tackle AMR
   David Lye

Phage therapy: benchwork expeditions - Dr Sue Nang
Implementing phage therapy in the clinic under the banner of Phage Australia - Prof. Ruby Lin
Modelling of in vivo bacteriophage dynamics - Dr Jérémy Seurat

Moderators: Dr Yu-Wei Lin and Prof. Sebastian Wicha

1. Non tuberculosis mycobacteria and prosthetic joint infections
   Monica Chan
2. Reactive Oxygen skin and soft tissue treatment
   Matthew Dryden
3. The results of the Italian registry for SSTI, real life epidemiology and treatment of SSTI
   Pasquale Pagliano
4. Detection of difficult to culture bacteria associated with bone and joint infections using real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR)
   Nusreen Ahmad-Saeed (UK)
5. Criteria for early switch from IV to oral antibiotics in hospitalized patients with SSTI: a prospective study
   Parham Sendi

Moderator: Kordo Saeed

Phage therapy in bone and joint infections - Dr Antonia Scobie

Antimicrobial resistance in fracture-related infections: what can we do? - Dr Julie Lourtet

Spinal infections epidemiology, diagnosis and outcomes from a single centre - Giorgio Bartalucci

Closing statements

Speaker
Dr Meiling Han (Monash University)

Moderators
Wenyi Li (La Trobe University)
Dr Jinx Zhao (Monash University / ISAC Early Career Chair)

Moderators:
Dr Jinxin Zhao (Monash University / ISAC Early Career Chair)
Dr Alina Nussbaumer-Pröll (Medical University of Vienna / ISAP Secretariat

1. Academic speaker - Prof. Sebastian Wicha (Hamburg University)
2. Clinical speaker - A/Prof. Thomas Tängdén (Uppsala University, Sweden)
3. Industry speaker - Dr Cuong Vuong (Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Belgium)

Dr Amanda Wang (Speaker)
Dr Nusaibah Abdul Rahim (Moderator)

Dr Yu-Wei Lin (Speaker)
Dr Jinxin Zhao (Moderator)

Chair
Despoina Koulenti

1. Diagnosis and management of severe community-acquired pneumonia
   Antoni Torres
2. Diagnosis and management of abdominal sepsis
   Jan De Waele
3. Management of infections caused by MDR Gram-negative pathogens
   Patrick Harris
4. Management of S.aureus bacteremia
   Stefan Hage
5. Viral infections in the Intensive Care Unit
   Sotirios Tsiodras
6. Role of biomarkers for sepsis diagnosis in critically ill patients
   Pedro Povoa
7. Antibiotic de-escalation
   Liesbet De Bu
8. Antibiotic stewardship (in COVID-19 era)
   Jeroen Schouten
9. Therapeutic Drug Monitoring and antibiotic optimization in the Intensive Care Unit
   Hafiz Abdul-Aziz
10. Host-targeted immunotherapies in the Intensive Care Unit
    Antoine Roquilly
11. COVID-19 in haematological malignancies: outcome of infection and the effects of vaccination
    Evangelos Terpos
12. Ventilator associated pneumonia in COVID-19 patients
    Andrew Conway Morris
13. Management of severe COVID19 infection
    John Marshall

Insights into the changing epidemiology of S. aureus in Boston, Massachusetts using routinely collected electronic health record data - Dr Sanjat Kanjilal (Harvard University)
Exploring the surveillance potential of phenotypic susceptibility tests in outpatient S. aureus infections among US Veterans, 2010-2019 - Dr Margaret Carrel (University of Iowa)
A 2019 prospective survey of the genomic epidemiology of S. aureus in South America: results from the first StaphNET-SA network - Dr Sabrina N. Di Gregorio (University of Buenos Aires)

Moderators

Prof. Margreet Vos and Dr Michael David

Chairs
Margreet Vos / Valerie Baede  / Michael Z. David

Regional & National MRSA Surveillance Programs: results of a survey
Valerie Baede

Short laboratory presentations from the following speakers:

1. Harald Seifert (University of Cologne, Germany)
2. Anders Rhod Larsen (Statens Serum Institut, Copenhagen)
3. Guido Werner (Robert Koch Institute, Wernigerode)
4. Leo Schouls (Centre for Infectious Disease Control Netherlands (CIb), National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, the Netherlands)
5. Joanna Empel (National Medicines Institute, Warsaw, Poland)
6. Michael Borg (Mater Dei Hospital, Malta)
7. Domnique Blanc (Lausanne University Hospital,, Switzerland)
8. Boudewijn Catry (Sciensano, Belgium)
9. Helena Žemličková (National Institute of Public Health, Czech republic)
10. Aurélie Chabaud (Limoges University Hospital, France)
11. Francois Vandenesch (National Reference Center for Staphylococc, France)

Chair
Kordo Saeed (University Hospitals Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, UK)

1. Role of PCT in COVID-19 Patients
   Eric Howard Gluck (Swedish Hospital, USA)
2. Rapid pneumonia diagnostics in the molecular age: results from the SARIPOC trial
   Stephen Poole (Biomedical Research Centre, UK)
3. Is proinflammatory biomarker ProADM helpful for risk stratification in COVID-19 patients?
   Philipp Schuetz (Kantonsspital Aarau, Switzerland)
4. QiaSTAT and patient safety: experiences with a rapid PCR system
   Peter Laszlo Kanizsai (University of Pécs, Hungary)
5. Rapid biomarkers in community setting to improve antibiotic use
   Heiman Wertheim (the Netherlands)

• Novel diagnostics for UTIs and impact on rapid antimicrobial sensitivity - Dr Lucy Bock
• Rapid diagnosis of Hepatitis B in a LMIC and impact on prevention measures - Dr Saranga Sumathipala
• Metagenomics and potential impact on AMR and infection prevention in critical care settings

1. Immunology and virology
   Dr Noha Hammad 
2. Transmission dynamics
   Dr Kalisvar Marimuthu
3. Clinical aspects of monkeypox
   Prof. Souha Kanj
4. Ongoing epidemiology of monkeypox
   Prof. Alfonso Rodriquez-Morales 
5. Infection prevention and control of monkeypox
   Dr Rehab Tash

Moderator: Prof. Fatma Amer (Chair of ISAC's Viral Infections Working Group)

1. Respiratory-borne viral infections during mass gatherings
   Prof. Jaffar A. Al-Tawfiq
2. Monkeypox virus: is it the coming challenge during mass gatherings?
   Prof. Alfonso J. Rodriguez-Morales
3. Water- and food- borne viral infections during mass gatherings
   Dr Anusha Rohit
4. Vector-borne viral infections during mass gatherings
   Dr Rehab Tash
   
   

Rehab Tash is an associate professor of medical microbiology and immunology at Zagazig University, Egypt and an infection control consultant and auditor. Dr Tash is a certified associate trainer (International Board of Certified Trainers) and CIPT (Certified International Professional Trainer ) and has a diploma of health professions education (DHPE/SCU). She shared in designing and conducting a Masters degree of infection prevention and control (IPC) at Zagazig School of Medicine, and training programs for health care workers in IPC & quality. She is an author and editor of infection control books (Arabic and English).

Alfonso J. Rodriguez-Morales is an expert in tropical and emerging diseases, particularly in zoonotic and vector-borne diseases (especially arboviral diseases), now including COVID-19. He is President of the Publications and Research Committee of the Pan-American Infectious Diseases Association (API), as well as President of the Colombian Association of Infectious Diseases (ACIN).
He is member of the Committee on Tropical Medicine, Zoonoses and Travel Medicine of ACIN. He is Vice President of the Latin American Society for Travel Medicine (SLAMVI) and Member of the Council of the International Society for Infectious Diseases (ISID).

J. Scott Weese is a veterinary internist, a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine, and a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. He is a Professor at the Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph, Director of the University of Guelph Centre for Public Health and Zoonoses, Chief of Infection Control at the Ontario Veterinary College Health Sciences Centre, and is a member of the Tripartite Global Leaders Group on AMR and Chair of the WHO Advisory Group for Critically Important Antimicrobials in Human Medicine.

Nissreen ElSayed Elbadawy is a professor of Medical Microbiology & Immunology at the Department of Medical Microbiology & Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, Zagazig University, Egypt. She has previous experience as consultant of immunotherapy in an immunology unit, investigator in molecular biology unit, and consultant of infection control in Zagazig University Hospitals.

Fatma Amer is past head of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, Zagazig, Egypt where she is an emeritus professor. She is an Executive Committee member of ISAC and Chair of the ISAC Viral Infection Working Group. She has extensive work and research on virology and viral infections, particularly hepatitis C virus type, and published for the first time (in Egypt and worldwide) the mutants responsible for resistance to DAAs among Egyptian HCV genotype 4a patients. She is a consultant for the WHO Advisory Group of the Critically Important Antimicrobials for Human Medicine (AG-CIA) and for Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) nationally, regionally and internationally.

* H5N1 and animal health: expansion and impacts on wildlife conservation - Dr Isabella Monne (Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Venezie, Italy)
* H5N1 in mammals: what evidence do we see for ongoing human adaptation - Dr Tom Peacock (The Pirbright Institute / Imperial College London, UK)
* Public health preparedness for a potential H5N1 pandemic - Prof. Charles (Todd) Davis (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, USA)
The session was moderated by Zoonoses Working Group Chair, Prof. Georgios Pappas (Institute of Continuing Medical Education of Ioannina, Greece).