Categorized | Health

International Workshops on Opportunistic Protists at UH-Hilo (Aug. 1-5)

MEDIA RELEASE

The International Workshops on Opportunistic Protists, devoted to a diverse group ofmicroorganisms that cause serious problems in AIDS patients and other patients with defective immune systems, returns to Hilo Aug. 1-5 for the 11th International Workshop.

Maintaining a home in Hilo, Conference Chairwoman Edna Kaneshiro, from the University of Cincinnati said “There are immunodeficient people worldwide and these populations are increasing. These workshops are vital because scientists share the most current research onpathogens (disease causing agents, such as viruses and bacteria) that normally do not cause disease but can be fatal to those with weak immune systems, including cancer, transplant, AIDS patients, or infants and the elderly.”

Much of the work being discussed at IWOP is basic research on organisms that include the agents of pneumonia in AIDS patients, intestinal pathogens and microsporidia (present in contaminated drinking water), Toxoplasma (transmitted by cat feces), and free-living amoebae that gain entry into the bodies of such immunodeficient individuals.

The first meeting on Protists was initiated to serve the small, but growing international scientific community interested in working with the unusual, non-cultivatable organismPneumocystis.

Today, IWOP is regarded as the most important meeting for most researchers of Pneumocystis, Cryptosporidium, and the microsporidia.

This year’s workshop participants include MDs who specialize in infectious diseases, treat patients and also do research:

* Dr. Jens Lundgren, who heads the Copenhagen HIV Programme (CHIP), which coordinates international studies of clinical research related to HIV, will discuss HIV Treatment to prevent infections. Lundgren is a specialist in infectious diseases, internal medicine and tropical medicine, and professor of infectious disease epidemiology at University of Copenhagen.

* Dr. Laurence Huang is involved in clinical and translational research related to HIV- associated pulmonary disease, primarily Pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP). Pneumocystis is commonly found in the lungs of healthy people, but being a source of opportunistic infection it can cause a lung infection in people with a weak immune system and is especially seen in people with cancer and HIV/AIDS. Huang is Professor of Medicine, UCSF and Chief, AIDS Chest Clinic, San Francisco General Hospital .

IWOP-11 is being sponsored by Burroughs-Wellcome Fund Institute, National Institute ofAllergy and Infectious Diseases, Romark Laboratories, Inc, the University of Hawaii at HiloConference Center, and Waterborne, Inc.

For more information about the workshops contact Kaneshiro at (513) 253-6393 or e mail Edna.Kaneshiro@uc.edu, or contact the UH Hilo Conference Center at http://uhhconferencecenter.com or Judith Fox-Goldstein at foxgolds@hawaii.edu

One Response to “International Workshops on Opportunistic Protists at UH-Hilo (Aug. 1-5)”

  1. aquaculturehub says:

    Nice website and we are going to follow this workshop with the aquaponics workshop: http://uhhconferencecenter.com/haaa2010.html

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