Prof Stefan Kaufmann, Director, Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, Berlin, Germany
The first joint conference on infectious diseases between Leopoldina and ASSAf was held in October 2016 at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Germany. That meeting was a great success, but the present conference has been even more successful. Scientific information was shared, new friends were made, potential collaborators were identified, and researchers found ideas for new projects.
Prof Stefan Kaufmann conveyed the thanks of Prof Jörg Hacker, President of the Leopoldina, who had only been able to attend on the first day. It was particularly rewarding that Prof Hacker and Prof Jansen, President of ASSAf, had extended the MoU on cooperation between Leopoldina and ASSAf for another five years.
The conference included sessions on comorbidities, AMR, diagnostics, vaccines, drugs, patient-centred activities, management surveillance and response, and guidelines for the future.
Prof Kaufmann commended the title of the conference (Surveillance and Response to Infectious Diseases and Comorbidities: An African and German Perspective) for several reasons:
• Response is important from the WHO perspective.
• Comorbidities of infectious diseases with non-infectious diseases are becoming more frequent.
• The title places ‘African’ first before ‘German’, which reflects a meeting of the partners on an equal level.
Another positive aspect of the conference was that there was almost equal participation of men and women.
For future conferences on this topic between the partners, Prof Kaufmann would like to see the term ‘integrated response’ appear in the title.
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Prof Kaufmann was glad to see initiatives in bioinformatics as a field for the future. His dream for the future was to have a disease epidemiology forecast. The response to the listeria outbreak in South Africa, for example, could have been considerably shortened through an information system that localised the occurrence of the disease and showed the supermarkets where the disease victims had bought their food. Attention would need to be paid to attract information technologists to develop these areas.
Prof Kaufmann thanked everyone responsible for organising the conference.
Mr Christian Acemah, Executive Secretary, Uganda National Academy of Sciences, Uganda
Mr Acemah commended the excellent balance at the conference between the German and African perspectives. He thanked everyone responsible for organising the conference. Unfortunately the scientific coordinator of UNAS, Prof David Serwadda, was not able to attend.
Prof Quarraisha Abdool Karim, Associate Scientific Director, CAPRISA, South Africa
Prof Karim echoed the thanks of the previous speakers to all those responsible for the partnership. Planning for the conference began in Berlin in 2016. There was a discussion of who to include, and particular interest in involving young investigators. The scope could have been limited to the partnership between Germany and South Africa, but it was decided to use the opportunity to try to make this a pan-African effort, and to widen the scope of German research institutions beyond Max Planck.
Senior scientists have a lot to offer at a conference such as this. They have been magnanimous in sharing their life-long experience and wisdom related to their successes and failures, projects, institution-building, programmes and peer collaboration.
The conference involved a good mix of senior scientists, mid-level researchers and junior investigators (or rising stars). Africa is unique in that 65% of the population of the continent is under the age of 35 years. In Africa, young people are not the future, but the present. The present generation of young people are growing up with technology and a worldview related to access to information that was previously inconceivable, and
which eliminates many of the disparities between the global North and South, and between industrialised and non-industrialised nations. Young investigators must not be underestimated; they have much to teach the older generation, and the older generation as much to share with them, in a synergistic relationship.
In the 21st century, there are possibilities of altering trajectories with respect to allowing people to live longer, healthier and more meaningful lives.
Science is important for social and economic transformation. What humanity has already achieved is only the beginning. When men and women contribute equally, and when we can join forces globally, the possibilities on Earth and beyond are tremendous and are limited only by our imagination.
Surveillance
The Surveillance session did not take place the previous evening, so Prof Karim shared some ideas on this topic.
Epidemics tend to have a two-year delay before they are identified as an epidemic, whether category 1 or 2. Once the epidemic has been identified, there is media attention, huge investment and some level of public hysteria, but once the epidemic is over, amnesia sets in.
Those working with infectious diseases and disaster management need to be smarter during the inter-epidemic period to build on the momentum created by the epidemic. During the inter-epidemic period, we need to nurture relationships with the media and increase awareness among the general public. Popularisation of knowledge is important and does not receive enough attention, especially in Africa.
Epidemics start in communities, and communities are the first to know about the disease. They need to be informed how to respond when they observe common patterns and death. More advocacy efforts are needed at community level, linked to media efforts, whole government accountability, and more rapid responses. Good-quality, consolidated data and communication are important. There are many lessons to be learnt from each epidemic that can be applied to subsequent epidemics in order to develop a critical mass of individuals with knowledge, expertise and ability for rapid responses.
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Prof Karim thanked the leaders and organisers responsible for convening the conference, the speakers and the participants. She acknowledged the sponsors: ASSAf, Leopoldina, ICSU ROA and the South African DST.
Prof Karim invited participants to email suggestions for the evolving partnership.
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