Report from the “Global Health Meets Infection Biology” LSS2012 Program

Abstract

The Global Health Institute (GHI), at Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, plays an instrumental role in understanding various aspects of infectious diseases. The Life Science Symposium 2012, titled “Global Health Meets Infection Biology”, created a platform for excellent interaction among the top infection biologists across the globe. Infectious diseases which claim 18 million human lives each year and account for half of the deaths in the developing world is still the least understood. Prof. Stewart Cole (GHI, EPFL), gave a brief overview of the status of various infectious diseases in the world and shared some very interesting facts. The health budget can range from as low as $11/year in Eritrea to as high as $8262/year in Luxemburg. Zoonotic diseases are on constant rise with 2.5 billion cases and 2.7 million deaths per year. Keynote speaker Dr Rino Rappuoli from Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics talked about “Vaccines and Global Health”. As pointed by Dr Rappuoli, the major events in the history can be linked to the infectious diseases. Siena, one of richest cities in Italy, suffered from terrible attack of plague, leading to “Black Death”, in 1348, which led to an unfinished cathedral. To combat the infectious diseases, vaccines came into picture. Twenty-first century vaccines still work on “inactivation and injection”. In the 21st century, there will be problems of aging society, emerging infection, and poverty. The biggest challenge will be to combat poverty and emerging infectious diseases. Dr Rappuoli emphasized new thinking which will lead to successful vaccine development. There were four sessions which dealt with various aspects of infectious diseases.