HAPPENING TODAY

ISAC's free webinar on Dissemination of viral infections during mass gatherings is happening today (24 October at 15.00 CET).*

Mass gatherings (such as sporting events, concerts or religious pilgrimages) are high profile occasions, often attended by tens of thousands of individuals. They can pose public health challenges and strain public health resources of the host community, city or country. Mass gatherings, like the Hajj, Olympics or musical festivals, necessitate significant preparedness and response planning on the part of the host. There is plentiful evidence that mass gatherings can be the focus of the spread of pathogens causing infectious diseases. Of particular importance are viral infections, particularly in the context of current outbreaks: COVID-19 and monkeypox. Such infections can be transmitted during the event itself, during transport to and from the event, and in participants’ home communities upon their return.

The purpose of this webinar is to outline the most significant viral infections currently associated with mass gatherings, suggest key planning considerations for the organisers of mass gatherings in the context of novel viral outbreaks and provide general advice on the public health aspects of mass events.

We look forward to your participation.

 Participants will be able to download a certificate of attendance during the webinar.

*Find your start time by timezone.

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Speaker bios

Prof. Fatma Amer is a professor of medical microbiology and immunology at Zagazig Faculty of Medicine, Egypt. Prof. Amer is Chair of ISAC's Viral Infections Working Group and a committee member of International Society of Infectious Diseases (ISID). She formulated and chaired Arab Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics for 10 years. She is the co-editor of the International Arabic Journal of Antimicrobial Agents (IAJAA) and sits on editorial boards of many journals. She has published numerous virology manuscripts in high-ranked journals. She has supervised and evaluated several MSc and PhD theses nationally and internationally and is a reviewer of manuscripts submitted for journals, conferences and international awards. She has participated in conferences all over the world as an organiser, chairperson and speaker.

Dr Jaffar A. Al-Tawfiq is a consultant of internal medicine and infectious diseases at Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare. He is a professor of medicine and infectious diseases at the Indian University School of Medicine, USA. Since 2012, he has been involved in the management and control of the emerging MERS-CoV and was involved in Mass Gatherings as it relates to Hajj pilgrimage. His current interests include: mass gatherings, hospital epidemiology, healthcare associated infections, antimicrobial resistance, antibiotic stewardship and emerging respiratory pathogens including MERS-CoV and COVID-19.

Dr 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).

Dr Anusha Rohit is Head of Microbiology in the Madras Medical Mission hospital in Chennai. She graduated in medicine in 2006 at the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences and completed her Masters in Microbiology (MD). She did a PhD also in Medical Microbiology on Molecular characterisation of beta-lactamases in Escherichia coli.
Dr Rohit has authored over 40 publications in peer reviewed national and international journals, contributed to book chapters and co-edited one textbook. She is a guide to PhD students and an invited speaker at national and international conferences. She has been the chair of the infection control committee in the hospital for 13 years and has been chosen as the 2017 Society of Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) international ambassador for India.
Further, she has been the recipient of the Department of Science and Technology (DST) award as local convener for an Indo-German workshop on “Next generation sequencing in clinical Microbiology and public health”. Dr Rohit has been awarded a grant from the DST to run a project on Multi-drug resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae.

Dr 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).

With her academic background and experience she is looking forward to contributing to improvements in the field of infection control, health care quality, medical education and training.