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The international congresson infectious diseasesDr. T. F. Brewer a , Tina Linnakivi Vidö b , Dr.Roger H. Charlier c d , Roger H. Charlier e f &Vasilis Burganos ga Program Director International Society forInfectious Diseases , 181 Longwood Avenue,Boston, Mass., D2115–5804, USAb 263 91 Hallstavik, Swedenc HAECUN Inc. , Ghent, Belgiumd Free University , Brussels, Belgiume HAECON Inc. , Ghent, Belgium B‐9031f Free University Brussels , Belgiumg Institute of Chemical Engineering and HighTemperature Chemical Processes , P.O. Box1414, GR‐265 00 PATRAS, GreecePublished online: 24 Feb 2007.

To cite this article: Dr. T. F. Brewer , Tina Linnakivi Vidö , Dr. Roger H. Charlier ,Roger H. Charlier & Vasilis Burganos (1999) The international congress oninfectious diseases, International Journal of Environmental Studies, 56:4,619-628, DOI: 10.1080/00207239908711226

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00207239908711226

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Intern. J. Environ. Studies, 1999, Vol. 56, pp. 619-628 © 1999 OPA (Overseas Publishers Association) N.V.Reprints available directly from the publisher Published by license underPhotocopying permitted by license only the Gordon and Breach Science

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Conference Reports

THE INTERNATIONAL CONGRESSON INFECTIOUS DISEASES

The biannual meeting of the International Society for InfectiousDiseases, was held for the first time in the United States in Boston inMay of 1998. The scientific program began on May 15 with a pre-congress symposium devoted to the diagnosis and management ofHIV infection into the next decade. In addition to outstanding updateson the epidemiology of HIV around the world and the recognition andtreatment of acute HIV infection, highlights of this pre-congresssymposium included an overview of the current status of HIV vaccinesand a point/counterpoint of anti-retroviral therapy for asymptomaticindividuals. The official scientific program for the 8th ICID began witha plenary talk by Anthony Fauci, Director of the US NIAID. Duringhis remarks, Dr. Fauci presented new data on the identification of HIVin latent T cells and the potential use of cytokines for the eradicationof virus from these sequestered sites. Additional plenary highlightsincluded Franchise Portaels of Belgium discussing the worldwideepidemic of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis with emphasis on the riseof this disease in the former Soviet Union. Professor Weiss of theUnited Kingdom reviewed the pathophysiology of retroviruses, andhighlighted concerns regarding the possible transmission of theseinfectious agents in animal organs used for human patients. ProfessorBeasley discussed the impact of hepatitis B vaccination on bothhepatocellular carcinoma and chronic hepatitis and the likelihood oferadicating this virus in the coming millennium. Nobel laureate JoshuaLederberg provided an overview of how humans and microbesinteract, and where we are losing the battle to microbes for globalsupremacy. Professor Adel Mahmoud gave a unique perspective on

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the interaction between science, public health, and the World HealthOrganization with the need to improve communication between basicscience researchers, clinicians and the public health community toaddress the major infectious disease threats in the world today. Theconcern over antibiotic resistance and its spread around the world wasdiscussed in a number of symposia held throughout the Congress.Highlighted topics included the development of national and interna-tional surveillance schemes for the detection of antibiotic resistance,recent advances in our understanding of the molecular genetics ofresistance in bacteria and viruses, and the development of potentialnew agents to combat multidrug-resistant microbes. The recentdevelopments in virology were reflected in the markedly increasednumber of symposia devoted to antiviral treatment, the diagnosis ofviral infections, and the assessment of antiviral resistance and itsclinical implications. Other symposia highlighted emerging diseases,new developments in vaccine vectors and vaccine use, and newunderstanding in parasitic infections such as leishmaniasis andmicrosporidiosis. The meeting also included interactive sessions inpediatric infectious disease cases, HIV cases, non-HIV viral infections,adult clinical cases, and travel medicine. Overall, the scientific programbrought together many of the world's experts in a variety of areas ofinfectious disease and left participants with new knowledge andenthusiasm for the future. The Society and the Program Committeeare looking forward to building on the success of the meeting at the9th ICID, which will be held in Buenos Aires in April of 2000.

Dr. T. F. BrewerProgram Director

International Society for Infectious Diseases181 Longwood Avenue

Boston Mass. D2115-5804 (USA)

BALTIC MEETING POINT IN UPPSALA (JUNE 15-17, 1998)

The first meeting in Uppsala of the Baltic Meeting Point was held in1998. Researchers and representatives of society and industry from theBaltic countries were invited and had the opportunities to meet anddiscuss sustainable community development in the region. About 350

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participants from 11 countries, came together to learn about newresearch results, create networks and contacts for the future.

The title of this summer's Baltic Meeting Point was "Sustainablecommunity development" The first day included interesting lectureswith speakers well-known within their profession. Matti KlingeProfessor of history from Finland lectured about the development ofthe historical and cultural picture of the Baltic Region. The formerPrime Minister of Estonia Andres Tarand spoke on the importance ofthe environmental movement for democratic development in the BalticRegion. On the second day seven workshops was arranged and dividedinto three subjects: water, energy and urban/rural relations. Eachworkshop had about five researchers who talked about the latestdevelopment within their subject. Two students were included in eachworkshop and had the main responsibility for the conclusions of theirworkshop. At lunch time each workshop made a educationalexcursion to a interesting place on the subject of the workshop, inthe surroundings of Uppsala.

Partner Search Forum was a part of the conference which gave theentrepreneurs and organisations in the Uppsala Region the opportu-nities to meet decision-makers and entrepreneurs from the participat-ing countries, in smaller groups. Several participants joined thePartner Search Forum and many contacts were made.

At the Uppsala University foyer entrepreneurs and organisationspresented their own organisation and its operations related to thetheme of the conference in the form of a poster exhibition.

The last day of the conference was devoted to an interestingsummary of the results of the workshop discussions. The final speechwas held by the Deputy Director-General of DG 11, Tom Garvey.

The meeting was a great success and the visitors were invited back toUppsala and to the next Baltic Meeting Point in the year 2000.

The organisers were Uppsala Municipality, Uppsal University theSwedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala County Counciland the Uppsala County Administrative Board.

For more information and for conclusions visit our homepage:www.balticmeetingpoint.com

Tina LinnakiviVidö

263 91 Hallstavik (Sweden)

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GLOBAL WARMING AND SEA-LEVEL RISE.(MAY 11-16, 1997, VENICE, (ITALY))

The meeting was organized jointly by PIAN's (Permanent Interna-tional Association of Navigation) International and Italian sections,and the (Third) Italian Days of Coastal Engineering; support wasspecifically provided for the "International Debate" by the "Con-sorzio Italia Nuova". PIANC's I. C. Commission has organized bi-annually, major seminars and debate of capital environmentalimportance and resulting publications have become valuable referenceworks. At the latest colloquia coastal protection against erosion,bioremediation and treatment of sludge and dredgings have beenhandled. The 1997 affair involved there topics as eustatism, subsidenceshoreline retreat that are probably related to global warming andaccelerated sea level variation, thence to coastal management.Emphasis was mainly placed on environmental consequences ofglobal warming and ensuing sea-level rise, but this included socialand economic impacts, and the engineers' potential role in the variouspossible scenarios. This meeting had the merit of including some casestudies (particularly Venice and the Adriatic, as to be expected) and toextend over 6\ hours, all in all a rewarding "conference". One possibleflaw was that intervenors in the debate rather than raising questionsand "grilling" the presenters, de facto inserted short "papers" of theirown, targeting regional situations; in this regard Professor Tomasic-chio (Bari) and Engineer Carlson (Norway) added thoughtful views towhat had been said by the forenoon speakers.

The week-long affair included a wide array of discussions centeringon the problems and attempts to solve them, of the city and lagoon ofVenice illustrated by a day-long boat trip. Thus were reviewed suchpractical and environmental topics, as selective removal of theNorthern Industrial Canal's polluted sediments, Tressa Islandmorphological restoration, Lidodegli Alberoni banks protection, andreinforcement. of breakwaters (murazzi) of Pellestrina whose centerand shoreline are undergoing respectively protection and reinforce-ment. Participants were likewise briefed on the protection of thecentres of Malancocco and San Paolo in Volt, dredging in Colmata BCanal and restoration of salt-marshes wetlands.

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One may regret that this field trip had perhaps not had the fullimpact it deserved. The same applied to the second boat trip fromFerrara to Mestre on Po River and Lagoon. Engine noise and privatecommunication dampened efforts to understand the well-prepared andinformation-loaded comments. What became very apparent is theeconomically depressed aspect of the Po Plain and the limited touristicappeal of the valley. This detracts nothing, however, from the touristvalue of the city of Ferrara itself.

"Debate Day" was cut in two parts, precisely by the lunch break !The morning sessions provided a review of the topics (global warmingand sea-level rise). Of the four speakers scheduled, the first two-J. K.Vrijling of the Dutch Rijkswaterstaat and Delft University and RogerCharlier (joint author with C. F. De Meyer) of HAECON Ltd andUniversity of Brussels examined sea-level rise, respectively, from aphysical and an engineering point of view. The second presentation,however, did, briefly, consider some specific sites {e.g., Venice, MarMenor, Charleston, New Orleans). Vrijlinck felt fears were exagger-ated, but Charlier-De Meyer, while stressing the deep disagreementsamong researchers, suggested not waiting for the controversy to besettled, as conditions could progress too far and intervention costssoon reach intolerable heights, particularly for "poorer" nations.

One may admire coastal engineering efforts made by the British toadapt to the ASLR (accelerated sea level rise) in Great Britain. Thecase of the Southeast of England was detailed by (I. Thorn, from H. R.Wallingford). The approach appears realistic, takes into accountrelative sea-level rises and focused on the need to defend the shorelinebecause of economic and social factors.

The cases of Venice (and its "sinking") and of the North AdriaticSea subsidence, received in-depth attention from M. Gacic of theExperimental Geophysical Observatory of Italy, and University ofTrieste, and G. Cecconi of Consorzio Italia Nuova. The latter speakergave a vivid description of the Venice Lagoon from the environmentalimpact angle; since flood barriers have been recommended as asolution to mitigate floods, yet remain controversial, the attendancewas appreciative of the detailed and richly illustrated expose.

Next came, in fact, careful presentations of two books: one on theHistory of Coastal Engineering in Italy, authored by L. Franco (ThirdUniversity of Rome) who focused on classical and medieval

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achievements. On a much grander scale though, it reminded one ofP. Bruin's now "classic" paper for the ASCE, on the history andphilosophy of coastal defense work.

J. Pope of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers commented on theCoastal Engineering Manual and reviewed initiative development froma technical point of view.

Closing off the day, J. Llorca Ortega (Spanish State HarboursAdministration) provided recommendations for maritime civil works,a state of the art critique and a view of future developments in relatedactivities. In turn, S. Moda of Japan's Technology Coastal Develop-ment Institute presented a clear picture of the damage caused in Kobein 1995 by the great Hanshin-Awaij earthquake and the ensuringreconstruction of the Pont of Kobe.

The papers and comments have been published in the form ofabstract in the October 1997 PIANC Bulletin issue. In conclusion, Iregret to detect what I believe is a communication chasm betweenacademic endeavours-such as LOICZ—and the technicians' ones.Hopefully, it may be narrowed as the century comes to a close, tobetter cope with the ASLR.

Dr. Roger H. CharlierHAECUN Inc. (Ghent, Belgium)

Free University (Brussels, Belgium)

BORDOMER 97. COASTAL ENVIRONMENT MANAGEMENTAND CONSERVATION. (BORDEAUX, FRANCE, OCTOBER27-29, 1997).

Of the 463 pre-registered participants about 300 attended. Theyrepresented 36 countries, but the overwhelming attendance wasFrench. The conference was co-sponsored by the Regional Councilof Aquitany and IFREMER, thus the number of sources of supportwas far smaller than for the previous affair in 1995, and things were ona far less lavish scale. Neither academe nor business played a role. Theonly social event, held at the Hotel the Region was by invitation only,... and superb. On the other hand, the larger number of seminarrooms allowed for simultaneous sessions instead of the plenary-sessions-only arrangements of 1995.

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CONFERENCE REPORTS 625

A small exhibition, dominated by the stands of IFREMER, theEuropean Commission, and Ecoplage, shared the major hall spacewith a posters area; though 100 posters had been announced, onlyslightly over half were displayed divided into three sections: general,case studies, tools and technologies. In an era of great emphasis oncommunication wherein the role of education for the environment isstressed, these topics were actually missing, except for two posters.

There was, in contrast with the recent Coastal Zone conferences inBoston (1997) and Rimouski (1996), no participation of the public atlarge. Perhaps some politicians and decisions-makers were reached,but not the community. Elected office-holders were less in evidencethan in previous BORDOMERs, and launching ceremonies wereconfined to welcomes and comments from former Prime MinisterJuppe, Region President Valade and Pierre David, chief executiveofficer of IFREMER. Such a confiend time span was widelycompensated by bringing onto the dais of the first round tabledepartment prefects, mayors, councillors whose interventions soundedoften as a rehearsal for the upcoming elections, including complaintsabout recipients of European Union funds. They nevertheless madesome pointed and constructive remarks. More disturbing, perhaps,were time-consuming commentaries of "experts" which gobbled updistressingly audience participation time. The table focused onchallenges and perspectives of the Aquitany coast and encompassedphysical deterioration (e.g., erosion and sedimentation), The Proceed-ings were bound in three volumes and a small addendum. Theyincluded extended abstracts of all papers, but none of the posters(many outstanding) rated a single line, in contrast with current customand BORDOMER's own previous publications. The printing job waspoor with many figures undecipherable, even smeared. No ISBN ismentioned, nor is an editor. Papers are "classified" according to thedate, time and room of presentation and it is difficult to locate aspecific paper.

Contrary to the trend at some recent conferences, papers wereconsistently of high calibre, though obviously some graduate studentsslipped in with their theses segments focusing on a terribly narrowtopic. The impressive number of papers were grouped under followingheadings: General policy, coastal zone management and informationrounded off with Political, legal and administrative aspects; Scientific

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tools; Marine and shoreline biology; Estuaries and deltas; Natural andtechnological risks under extreme conditions; Case studies of coastalzone management; G. I. S.; Shoreline evolution. The last day secondroundtable dealt with the present day and future tools of littoraldevelopment and planning policy.

Four plenary sessions included a coastal management technicalsession, and dealt with information integration to buttress localparticipation (Canadian presentation on the St Laurent action planexperience; Integrated study of the Arcachon Basin; and the ReunionIsland development and planning regional scheme). A third plenarydiscussed the SALMON project at the service of sustainable develop-ment, the lessons from sedimentary dynamics for the shoreline evolu-tion, and described the MARIS program of the EC DG 3 and the MAR-SOURCE program of EC's DG 12, both of which had an exhibitionstand. The last plenary covered the Mediterranean Sea coastal zonemanagement, the role of the Conservatoire du Littoral and the studies ofthe (French) OCDE in the field of coastal zone environment.

The conference, shorter by one or two days than its predecessors,fell somewhat short of the promises inherent in the title theme. Thesmaller foreign attendance limited a potentially large exchange of ideasand knowledge. Third-world countries were not on the foreground,while Russians and Ukrainians were active on the floor. The nextBordomer is scheduled for 1999, possibly 2000. Possibly thisconference, like some others, "suffers" from the large number of suchevents, and perhaps more spacing might be beneficial.

Roger H. CharlierHAECON Inc. (Ghent, Belgium B-9031)and Free University Brussels, (Belgium)

XII INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON COMPUTATIONALMETHODS IN WATER RESOURCES

The Twelfth International Conference on Computational Methods inWater Resources was held in Crete, Greece, 15-19 June 1998. TheConference was organized by the Institute of Chemical Engineeringand High Temperature Chemical Processes - Foundation for Research

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and Technology, Hellas. This series of conferences, formerly calledFinite Elements in Water Resources, was initiated at PrincetonUniversity in 1976 and has taken place biennially since thenalternating between America and Europe. Previous conferences, afterPrinceton, have taken place at Imperial College (1978), Universityof Mississippi (1980), University of Hannover (1982), University ofVermont (1984), Laboratorio Nacional de Engenharia Civil ofPortugal (1986), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1988),Giorgio Cini Foundation of Italy (1990), University of Colorado atDenver (1992), University of Heidelberg (1994), and Mexican Instituteof Water Technology (1996).

The conference proceedings include 153 papers of the 157 presentedorally at the Conference and contain the work of 343 researchers from31 countries (115 from USA and Canada, 21 from Latin America, 169from Europe, 28 from Asia, 2 from Australia, and 8 from Africa). Thescope of the work has evolved considerably from the first few editions,and it included this time topics such as three-phase flow in porousmedia, pore-scale simulations, soil contamination and remediation.

In the twelfth conference of this series an extra effort was made intwo directions, in addition to those that are already well establishedwithin the series. The first was to strengthen the link with the researchcommunity of chemical engineers who work in multiphase transportprocesses in permeable media in connection with oil and gasproduction. The geological, physical, chemical and physicochemicalsimilarities between that field and the one under consideration promisesubstantial corss-fertilization of concepts, theoretical models, andmathematical methods from closer cooperation. (Of course, suchcross-fertilization has already been going on for a few years now, bothoutside and inside the series of CMWR conferences). The second wasto give increased attention to the pore-scale mechanisms and theconcomitant cooperative effects that are responsible for the highlycomplex macroscopic behavior of multiphase transport processes insoil and permeable rocks. The challenge, here, is to develop acomprehensive theoretical framework and to forge effective mathe-matical tools that will allow us to bridge the gap between pore-scalephemonena and macroscopic processes, meaningfully and reliably.

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Vasilis BurganosInstitute of Chemical Engineering

and High Temperature Chemical ProcessesP.O. Box 1414

GR-265 00 PATRAS (Greece)

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