Paris, June 19, 2018 - On June 21 and 22, 2018, an international conference on Emerging Infections and Pandemic Risk, co-organized by the Institut Pasteur and the SCOR Foundation for Science, will bring some of the world’s leading scientists and public health professionals together at the Institut Pasteur (Paris) to examine the emergence and spread of epidemics, and to look at new tools and technologies that can be used to detect and manage them. The program includes plenary and panel sessions with speakers from 20 partner institutions around the world.

Emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases continue to pose a threat to public health around the world. Rapid urbanization, increased mobility and global economic interdependence exacerbate this threat and add to the challenge of containment. Human health is now not only affected by an increasingly interconnected world, but human health, animal health and the health of the surrounding ecosystem are inextricably linked. Being adequately prepared to detect, manage and respond to emerging infectious disease outbreaks has never been so imperative.

In this context, as stated by Professor Stewart Cole, President of the Institut Pasteur, “bringing together scientific excellence is a necessary challenge to enable a global view of public health that will be used to inform the civil society. The outcomes of the meeting should trigger changes to prevent and palliate pandemic effects”.

Philippe Trainar, President of the SCOR Foundation for Science, comments: “The SCOR Foundation aims to be at the cutting edge of risk expertise and research, thanks to its support for a large number of scientific disciplines. In this regard, infectious diseases are subject to particular attention and close monitoring by the SCOR Foundation insofar as they contribute to the extreme risks affecting mortality trends around the world. The conference on Emerging Infections and Pandemic Risk will provide a opportunity for the best international experts to draw lessons from recent epidemics, to analyze the potential contributions to be made by recent developments in genetics and digitization, and to better identify the future contours of pandemic risk.” 

Click here to read the full press release and here for more information.