One of the best-attended sessions at ATS 2009 was one that addressed the emerging influenza A (H1N1) virus. Attendees heard from officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a critical care physician from Mexico City who treated patients with H1N1 in the ICU and experts on how to prepare hospitals for such emergencies as pandemics.
“The ATS added this session in response to the H1N1 outbreak that occurred just weeks before our May 2009 meeting,” said Marc Moss, M.D., who was then vice-chair of the ATS International Conference. “The experts provided attendees with the important public health information about the H1N1 outbreak—that only one month later—would be declared by the World Health Organization as a phase six pandemic.”
At ATS 2010, the Society will continue to provide conference attendees with the latest information on the pandemic influenza A (H1N1) 2009 virus from international specialists, Dr. Moss said.
“We will offer two scientific sessions on the pandemic this year. The first will specifically focus on the epidemiology of the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, and the second will examine the role of global migration on respiratory disease, including H1N1,” he continued. “Attendees can once again expect to hear outstanding analysis, as well as recommended prevention and treatment options for H1N1, so they can better provide the highest quality respiratory and critical care for their patients.”
Update on H1N1 Pandemic
Session A91: “2009 H1N1 Pandemic Influenza: A Year Later: The Current State of Knowledge” will take place on Sunday, May 16, from 1:30 to 4 p.m.
“I think the strength of this year’s symposium is the cast of international experts who are very familiar with H1N1, several of whom have based their careers on the study of influenza,” said Lewis Rubinson, M.D., Ph.D., senior medical advisor in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, who will co-chair the session with Richard J. Whitley, M.D., professor of pediatrics, microbiology, medicine and neurosurgery at the University of Alabama, Birmingham. “The lineup of speakers are considered some of the most knowledgeable flu experts in the world and will be able to provide us with an informed summary of H1N1 in 2009.”
While last year’s session on H1N1 was well-attended, Dr. Rubinson said, little information was known at the time about the virus because it hit at the onset of the ATS 2009 International Conference.
“The data that was available was not very accessible to most people,” added Dr. Rubinson, who is on faculty at the University of Washington Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. “Now, we’re further along in the pandemic, and we know more about the overall epidemiology of H1N1—its impact on the population, its resistance to some antivirals, and the treatment strategies which may be more effective.”
The session, which is co-sponsored by the ATS Assembly on Environmental & Occupational Health and the Assembly on Microbiology, Tuberculosis & Pulmonary Infections, will also look at H1N1-associated critical illness in adults and children, based on information from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) H1N1 Critical Illness Registry. Subsequent talks will focus on prevention—vaccines and antivirals—and treatment—antivirals and salvage therapy—for H1N1-induced acute hypoxemic respiratory failure (AHRF).
Migration & Spread of Respiratory Disease
Immigration is a major risk factor in the transmission of respiratory disease, as indivduals infected with communicable diseases such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), avian flu and the H1N1 virus cross borders into other countries.
Session D85 “Global Migration and Respiratory Disease” will be co-chaired by Marc B. Schenker, M.D., M.P.H., a professor in the department of public health sciences at the University California, Davis, School of Medicine, and Fernando Holguin, M.D., M.P.H., director of the pediatric environmental medicine center at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. Dr. Schenker will present an update on the impact of migration on cigarette smoking habits, while Dr. Holguin will discuss migration’s impact on asthma.
Other topics that will be addressed include migration’s effects on tuberculosis risk and the incidence of occupational lung disease, as well as the need for transnational, clinical and public health policies to address acute and chronic respiratory diseases among migrants.