DAY 4 KEYNOTE TALK Dr. IVO STEINMETZ

The keynote of IGCLA 2016, Dr Ivo Steinmetz spoke about the riveting topic “One Health Approach in Infectious Diseases: Melioidosis as a Prime Example”. According to the one health approach, the health of humans, animals as well as the environment is interconnected and to effectively understand the disease one must look at all three aspects to form a proper concept of how to effectively diagnose and treat the disease. He spoke about melioidosis, an environment acquired infection which is predominant in the tropical and sub-tropical areas. Melioidosis has no specific symptom and may affect a variety of systems or organs with no specific clinical presentation thus making it highly underdiagnosed. Samples collected from areas near Manipal in the years 2013- 2015 have shown positive cultures for the causative agent and cases of it have been reported in this region. The disease is seen to affect diabetics more readily. Increased rainfall is seen to increase the infectivity of the organism. Dr Steinmetz mentioned the future challenges with respect to the disease as the development of better detection methods and tests, improvement of therapeutic options, increase of the clinical awareness and development of individual preventive measures such as vaccines.

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