University of Turku hosts a meeting on advances in diagnosis, surveillance and prevention of whooping cough
The European network EUPertStrain will have its 25th annual meeting in Turku 24-25 September. The meeting will focus on recent advances in the diagnostics and evolution of Bordetella pertussis and vaccine-induced immunity against whooping cough which has re-emerged globally and in many European countries
The annual EUPertStrain network meeting will be held at Medisiina D, University of Turku, Turku, Finland. The aim of the network is to improve whooping cough surveillance and to study the impact of changes in Bordetella pertussis, the bacterium responsible for this disease in European countries.
There are more than 50 professionals and academic researchers in the fields of medical microbiology, public health, immunology and vaccines, coming from 14 European countries who will attend the meeting.
Throughout the two days, participants will present their latest studies on biology and evolution of B. pertussis, diagnostics and epidemiology, and immunology and vaccines. The conference is organised by Professor, InFLAMES group leader Qiushui He and project researcher Alex-Mikael Barkoff with support from local pertussis group members from the Institute of Biomedicine, University of Turku.
Whooping cough is a serious disease, but it can be effectively prevented by vaccines. Nevertheless, whooping cough is still a matter of concern in the European Union. The disease is either still spreading or re-emerging in certain areas, and there are ongoing epidemics of pertussis in many European countries.