News Releases

UWI Campus Lecture Series & 71st BAMP/UWI CME COFERENCE

For Release Upon Receipt - April 30, 2012

Cave Hill


The 71st BAMP/UWI CME Conference scheduled for May 19th& 20th; 2012 at The Accra Beach Hotel will have as its main thrust a spectrum of topics on Communicable Diseases. The program preludes with the Campus Lecture Series on Friday, May 18th at The Henry Fraser Teaching and Laboratory Complex, UWI Faculty of Medical Sciences, Cave Hill Campus. Professor Suresh Anthony, Clinical Professor of Medicine at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Centre will speak on “New Bugs and Drugs: Community Acquired Pneumonia.” A reception starting at 6 PM will precede this presentation.

Infectious diseases remain among the leading causes of morbidity and mortality on our planet, and in recent times, the emergence of new infections and the re-emergence of older ones make for a new ‘battlefield’; one in which some diseases which had long been adequately controlled hold a new significance, some familiar ones seem strangely unfamiliar, and some which were no longer of great significance pose new challenges. 

During this conference our local experience with H1N1 pandemics, SARS outbreaks, and its public health challenges on the home- front will be shared.  The updates in epidemiology and management of methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections, emergence of tuberculosis, and in addition, implications of rarer diseases like malaria  as well as advice on before you travel seems appropriate.

There will be updates on the battle between infectious diseases and the immune system, one that is at the heart of disease, and so has been the fight to control the HIV/AIDS epidemic. New approaches in HIV/AIDS management will come to light with the topic - HIV treatment as prevention, and decentralization of HIV care.

Common infections in pregnancy and immunisation in pregnancy will also be updated.  Human papilloma virus infection too has been a recent scourge; HPV screening will therefore take the spotlight, and so will the controversial but topical inflammatory Pap Smear.    

With the discovery of antibiotics and their judicious use came the defeat of many life threatening infections, unfortunately, use and misuse of antibiotics have lead to the global phenomenon of microbial resistance and with it the challenges of limiting death, suffering and disability, and that of increasing health care costs; a  topic that should be of enormous interest to all.

A disease, now endemic, that has challenged many public health attempts at control is none other than dengue. Unravelling the complexities of its diagnosis and the use of the laboratory in the diagnosis of infectious diseases is time-appropriate.

The inclusion of medical ethics on the curriculum at The Faculty of Medical Sciences, Cave Hill Campus, UWI, is a noteworthy one, and with it a round –up of ethical issues of interest from within the meeting has become a tradition at recent BAMP/UWI CME Conferences. This conference, as in the past, has as its “curtain call” on ethics in what promises to be an exciting and informative finale.  

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