Tuesday, 23 June 2009

In the wake of the threatened ‘swine flu' H1N1 pandemic, a free public forum on infectious disease risks, with panellists including The University of Western Australia's Nobel Laureate Professor Barry Marshall, will be held at UWA.

The forum will give the public the chance to hear first-hand from world-renowned experts about infectious disease threats such as H1N1, the chance of another SARS outbreak, climate change and its impact on infectious diseases, antimicrobial resistance and infectious disease risks of water recycling.

It will be the first public event for the Australian Society of Microbiologists' annual meeting, which will include a week-long conference bringing together Australian and international experts in the field of microbiology.

The forum will be mediated by Dr Norman Swan, host of ABC Radio National's Health Report and presenter of ABC NewsRadio's Health Minutes.

The panellists are:

  • Professor Barry Marshall, Professor of Clinical Microbiology, UWA; Co-Director, Marshall Centre for Infectious Disease Research & Training
  • Professor Rita Colwell, a distinguished university Professor and Chairman of Canon US Life Sciences, Inc.
  • Professor John Mackenzie, Professorial Fellow, Australian Biosecurity CRC, Curtin University of Technology
  • Associate Professor Keryn Christiansen, Department Microbiology & Infectious Diseases, Royal Perth Hospital
  • Associate Professor Peter Collignon, Infectious Diseases Physician and Microbiologist, The Canberra Hospital and Professor, School of Clinical Medicine, Australian National University

For more information about the forum and the ASM conference, visit https://www.asm2009.org/ or call conference chair Rod Bowman.  RSVP (via the website) is required for the event and numbers are limited.

What                   Free public forum:  "Apocalypse When?"

When:                Sunday, 5 July, 6pm - 7:30pm.  Bar open from 5pm.

Where:               Octagon Theatre, The University of Western Australia

Media references

Rod Bowman, Principal Scientist, PathWest QEIIMC  (+61 8) 9346 3908  /  (+61 4) 19 915 005
Janine MacDonald (UWA Public Affairs)  (+61 8) 6488 5563  /  (+61 4) 32 637 716

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