The theme of ID Week 2013, now underway in San Francisco, is “Advancing Science, Improving Care,” and that is an excellent, concise summary of the conference’s mission and purpose. But the value of this important meeting goes beyond that: as clinicians, public health experts, academics, and other healthcare stakeholders, including laboratorians, convene to learn from one another’s expertise, they are confronting the challenge of how to address a sometimes frightened public in an era when concern about infectious diseases is widespread and probably increasing. The event, sponsored by the Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA), the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA), the HIV Medicine Association (HIVMA), and the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society (PIDS), is offering access to internationally recognized leaders in the field and the opportunity to network with health professionals in infectious diseases, including HIV. Attendees have come together to teach and learn, to foster public health, and to improve patient care.
The list of topics being covered by sessions is a long one, including such important and fascinating subjects as the following: an investigational norovirus vaccine; challenging cases in pediatric infectious diseases; a concentrate of fecal bacteria that stop C. diff from recurring; antibiotic overprescription; antimicrobial stewardship; management of HIV patients in the hospital setting; how cultural issues affect vaccination rates for HPV; fungal diagnostics; HAIs in developing countries; and much, much more. Access the interactive program to learn about the educational sessions featured in ID Week 2013, day by day.
