NAMSCON-2011 to focus on re-emerging infections

By Pinki Priyadarshini/ www.indusvalleytimes.com

Bhubaneswar: The emergence and re-emergence of health concerns like tuberculosis, malaria and filarial, viral and fungal infections with special reference to the eastern states, will be a major theme at the three-day annual conference of the National Academy of Medical Sciences (India) to be held at the Siksha O Anusandhan Deemed to be University here from October 14 next.

“This conference is being held for the first time in Orissa to be attended by the virtual who’s who of India’s health care scenario many of whom are policy makers for medical education,” Professor (Dr) Sureswar Mohanty, organising secretary of the event, said.

NAMSCON-2011, as the conference will be known, will have a Continuing Medical Education (CME) component where the focus will be on the subject “emerging and re-emerging infections with special reference to Eastern India”. Faculty members of all six medical colleges of Orissa, residents, medical students, medical professionals and officials of the union ministry of health are expected to attend.

Proffessor Mohanty, also an eminent neuro-surgeon at the Institute of Medical Sciences and SUM Hospital, which will be hosting the conference, said that Malaria which had apparently been suppressed in Orissa had re-emerged posing a major threat to public health..

He attributed this to organisms becoming resistant to antibiotics and decrease in the immunity level of the host saying this could be responsible for the re-emergence of some of the infections.

Around 300 fellows and members of the National Academy of Medical Sciences (India) who include former directors, deans and eminent professors at National Institutes like AIIMS, New Delhi and the PGIs, are expected to attend the conference.

Besides the CME on the opening day, oration by eminent medical professionals will mark the second day which will also witness the Convocation in the afternoon when around 100 new fellows and members would be admitted to the Academy.

Some of the prominent personalities who will deliver lectures are Dr Jyotirmoy Biswas, Director of Uveitis and Ocular Pathology department, Sankara Netralaya, Chennai, Dr. Susarla Krishna Shankar, Professor of Neuropathology, NIMHANS, Bangalore, Dr Vinay Sakhuja, Professor and Head of the Department of Nephrology, PGI, Chandigarh, Dr Digambar Behera, Director, LRS Institute of Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases, New Delhi and Dr Ravinder Goswami, Associate Professor, Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, AIIMS, New Delhi.

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