2nd International Conference on Avian Influenza in Humans

This international event will gather veterinarians, medical experts, government officials, scientists and economic decision-makers from countries all over the world touched by the spread of Avian Influenza. The aim of this conference is to bring together world specialists in order to discuss the latest advances on Avian Influenza, especially on new therapeutic targets for treatment and prevention in humans, and the strategies to avoid a human pandemic. A special session will be reserved to discuss about the management of a catastrophic scenario, in the case of a pandemic outbreak.

THE PROGRAM

Thursday May 31

8h00 Welcome and Registration
Session 1: Political and Economic Issues of Avian influenza

8h50 Conference Opening

9h00 Avian Influenza and Human Health: Focus on the Situation one Year after the worldwide Outbreak

9h30 Economic Impact of the Avian Influenza Propagation
Mr Milan Brahmbhatt, Lead adviser in the east Asia region of the world bank, USA

10h00 Avian Influenza Epizootie: where are we standing in 2007?
Dr Bernard Vallat, OIE, Paris, France

10h30 Break and Poster Session/Visit Exhibition Space

11h00 Human-to-Human Contamination: an increase in the cases number?

11h20 Estimation of potential global pandemic influenza mortality
Dr Christopher Murray, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA

11h40 Short oral communications

12h30 Lunch and Poster Session/Visit Exhibition Space
Session 2: Latest scientific advances on the H5N1 virus

14h00 Emergence of a new H5N1 influenza variant in China

14h20 Haemagglutinin mutations and binding of H5N1 to human-types receptors: one more step to the pandemic?

14h40 Role of host cytokines responses in the pathogenesis of Avian H5N1 influenza viruses in mice
Dr Terrence Tumpey, Centers for disease control and prevention, Atlanta, USA

15h00 Can the structure of H5N1 neuraminidase lead to the design of new drugs?
Dr Rupert Russell, Centre for Biomolecular Sciences, St Andrews, United Kingdom
Session 3: Prevention and Treatments: Focus on vaccine and drugs development

15h20 Promising findings in preclinical studies with live attenuated candidate vaccine

15h40 Safety and Immunogenicity of an inactivated adjuvanted whole-virion influenza A (H5N1) vaccine

16h00 Break and Poster Session / Visit Exhibition Space

16h20 Safety and immunogenicity of an inactivated split-virion influenza A/Vietnam/1194/2004 (H5N1) vaccine: phase I randomised trial

16h40 Last advances on vaccines development and production: a medical and political point of view
Invitation for all vaccine companies

17h00 Inhibition of influenza virus infection by a novel antiviral peptide that targets viral attachment to cells
Dr Stacey Schultz-Cherry, Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA

17h20 Oseltamivir therapy in ferrets inoculated with H5N1 influenza virus
Dr Govorkova, Department of Infectious Diseases, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital,Memphis, USA
Session 4: Latest scientific advances on H5N1 Detection

17h40 Diagnostic assay for H5N1 influenza viruses
Dr Nader Pourmand, Stanford University, Palo Alto, USA

18h00 Short oral communications

Gala Dinner
Friday June 1st
Session 5: Prevention of Avian Influenza in animals

9h00 Avian Influenza in animals: state of the art

9h30 Predicting the global spread of H5N1 avian Influenza
Dr Marm Kilpatrick, Consortium for Conservation Medicine, New-York, USA

10h00 Early Detection and application of preventive measures
Dr Stefano Marangon, Instituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Venezie, Padova, Italy

10h30 Break and Poster Session / Visit Exhibition Space

11h00 Implementation of vaccination: the do’s and don’ts
Dr Christianne Bruschke, OIE, Paris, France

11h30 Avian Influenza Eradication: why is it so difficult? Example of Hong-Kong, Egypt and other places.

12h00 Short oral communications

12h40 Lunch and Poster Session /Visit Exhibition Space

14h00 Round table discussion: Disaster Management Response

The following questions will be discussed with the chairmen:

Pr Koos Van der Velden, EISS, The Netherlands
Dr Déirdre Hollingsworth, Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Imperial college, London, United Kingdom

* Pandemic preparation: is Europe ready? Can the pandemic be predicted?
* What are the practical measures and ethical outcomes of a pandemic outbreak?
* Controlling of pandemic influenza spread: the example of travel restrictions

15h00 End of the conference

15h30 Workshop in French
Avian Flu Pandemic: preparing for the worst case scenario

The organizing committee is preparing to face a possible avian flu pandemic in France by contemplating worst case scenario.

18h00 End of the workshop