Infectious Diseases and HIV Conference

Infectious diseases are burdened by a great many challenges that impact both patient outcome and public health. From the continuously evolving threat of AMR to diagnostic complexities and emerging pathogens, healthcare professionals face a challenging landscape that promises to only worsen as this challenge grows in size. We hope that this session will discuss the most critical issues of infectious disease practice and, from there, help outline possible solutions towards better patient management and public health strategies.

Among the risks of infectious diseases, perhaps one of the most groundbreaking is Antimicrobial Resistance, or AMR. One of the most pressing and difficult challenges in the practice of infectious diseases is the growing rate of antimicrobial resistance.

In this session, we covered mechanisms of resistance, implications for treatment, and what the urgent stewardship efforts are doing to preserve remaining antibiotic efficacy. It included novel approaches that were being implemented to combat AMR, such as drug development, alternative therapies, and public health interventions intended to mitigate inappropriate use of antibiotics. Precise and timely diagnosis of infectious diseases controls them, but limited by the unavailability, sensitivity, and specificity of a variety of diagnostic tests.

This lecture will discuss common problems with diagnosis and specifically problems with traditional methods of microbiological diagnosis and provide a context for the acute setting and circumstances in which rapid results may be essential. Later discussions about new technologies of molecular diagnostics and point-of-care testing, relevant to increased sensitivity and speed of diagnosis, will proceed. Infectious diseases are an ever-changing landscape as new pathogens or re-emerging pathogens from the past present themselves in challenging healthcare systems.

This session will look at the effects of globalization, climate change, and urbanization on emerging infectious diseases. Participants will study real-time case studies of recent outbreaks under the theme of surveillance, research, and preparedness in the approach to these changing realities.

Managing infectious diseases patients creates a situation of complex clinical scenarios such as co-infections, underlying comorbid conditions, and patient adherence to treatment. The management strategy, with the need for a multidisciplinary approach and the need for educating a patient, will be part of this discussion session.

The participants will benefit from it, as they will learn about tailored treatment plans and what a health care provider should do to support a patient in adhering to treatment and engaging itself.

The session will culminate with the discussion on public health implications of challenges in infectious disease practice. It will engage participants in an overview of policy solutions that foster collaboration amongst healthcare providers, researchers, and public health officials to enhance efforts at disease prevention and control with strong focuses on education, community engagement, and health equity for the management of challenges in infectious diseases.