Track 3 Programme
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Track 3: Malaria, leishmaniasis, schistosomiasis and cryptosporidiosis are diseases on an extensive list of parasitic infections disproportionally affecting tropical countries. Likewise vector-borne diseases like dengue fever, filariasis and typhus and other neglected tropical infectious diseases are still important global health challenges. In this track we invite conference delegates to present and discuss their recent research on prevention, diagnostics, and treatment of all parasitic, vector borne and neglected tropical infections, and encourage interdisciplinary discussions on how their detrimental effect on human health can be mitigated.
Responsible: Kurt Hanevik, Kristine Mørch
Track 3 - Keynote - Day 1 (28 Sept.) 18:00
EED: Impact, mechanistic insight and way forward
Environmental enteric dysfunction (EED) is a disorder of intestinal dysfunction that manifests as impaired growth in children, typically without other clinical symptoms. Intestinal biopsies from children with EED are often characterized by villus blunting with mucosal inflammation. Epithelial cell disruption and microbial translocation can drive systemic inflammation. EED is associated with growth failure, nutrient malabsorption, and impaired responses to oral vaccines in young children. It is mostly found in low-income countries with a high burden of intestinal infections.
In this session Dr Zehra Jamil will present a general introduction on EED and its impact in LMIC children as well as her latest findings in the SEEM study. Dr Luther Bartelt will follow up on this and discuss the role of microbiota and research on specific pathogen model to further our mechanistic insight into factors eliciting or maintaining EED.
Name: Zehra Jamil
Institution: Aga Khan University, Pakistan
Speciality: Environmental enteric dysfunction (EED)
Date: 28.9.21
Time: 18:00-18:20
Title: Current understanding of Environmental enteric dysfunction – impact, mechanisms and management
Short bio
Dr Zehra Jamil is Assistant Professor at the Departments of Biological and Biomedical Sciences and a graduate student at Department of Pediatrics and Child Health at Aga Khan University in Pakistan.
Dr Zehra’s research focuses on the role of intestinal epithelial cells in gut homeostasis and their interaction with enteropathogens in the context of Environmental enteropathy. In an enteroid model, she is aiming to explore the influence of undernutrition on intestinal epithelium. The current focus of this work is on the host gut cell - pathogen interaction to understand the mechanism of invasion, impact on stem cell niche, gut integrity and homeostasis. This is done in enteroid co-culture experiments grown from duodenal tissue of undernourished pediatric patients, refractory to nutritional intervention.
Name: Luther Bartelt
Institution: University of North Carolina, USA
Speciality: epidemiology and pathogen-attributable gut dysfunction
Date: 28 Sept.
Time:18:20-18:40
Title: Environmental enteric dysfunction – role of specific pathogens
Short bio:
Luther Bartelt is a physician-scientist and Assistant Professor in the Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases and the Center for Gastrointestinal Biology and Diseases at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in USA.
Dr. Bartelt’s research sits at the translational interface between epidemiology and pathways and determinants of pathogen-attributable gut dysfunction and resulting sequelae that impair child health. He has developed novel murine gnotobiotic models to understand the impact of undernutrition on resident intestinal microbiota, and the consequences of pathogen-microbiota interactions on gut function and host development. The current focus of this work is consequences of chronic infection with the enigmatic parasite Giardia, and to test new paradigms of parasite-mediated pathogenesis.
- is organised by the University of Bergen (UiB) on behalf of the Federation of European Societies for Tropical Medicine and International Health (FESTMIH)
- with enabling partners (Centre for International Health, UiB; Haukeland University Hospital; Global Health Norway, the Norwegian Research School of Global Health; and the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (RSTMH))
- and sponsors (Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH); the European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP); and Merck)
- and supported by the Research Council of Norway.
- The abstracts will be presented in a special issue of the Journal of Tropical Medicine & International Health (TMIH).