Infectious Diseases in the 21st Century : Global Challenges for Health and Society : Conference, 24th - 26th October 2018, Jena : Final Program

According to forecasts, more people will die from infectious diseases in 2050 than from cancer. Although experts have predicted this dramatic development for some time, there is still no relief in sight. Pathogens that cannot be treated with any of the available antibiotics have already been identified and increasing flows of people in the globalised world are causing an ever faster spread of infectious diseases. The consequences of climate change and demographic change are difficult to assess in this context. In addition, emerging infections are increasingly becoming a global threat to humanity. The unnecessary consumption of antibiotics continues to accelerate the spread of resistant pathogens. These trends are counteracted by the lack of development of new classes of antibiotics as well as the increasing numbers of vaccination fatigues and anti-vaccination activists in Europe and North America. The conference "Infectious Diseases in the 21st Century" will address this highly relevant and controversial topic in a comprehensive, critical, factual and forward-looking manner. The conference is organized by the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and the Academy of Sciences Hamburg with the support of the consortium InfectControl 2020. The conference will bring together representatives from a wide range of disciplines to discuss these issues from different point of views in nine thematically focused sessions.