Saturday 11 / January / 2025
Muscat: Sessions of the 6th Meeting of the Eastern Mediterranean Acute Respiratory Infection Surveillance (EMARIS) Network and the 3rd Scientific Conference on Acute Respiratory Infection kicked off in Muscat on Monday.
The three-day events, hosted by the Sultanate of Oman, represented by the Ministry of Health, are organized in conjunction with the World Health Organization (WHO).
Experts and researchers from more than 20 countries are taking part in the EMARIS meeting. They review the most prominent projects, research and practices in the field of combating acute respiratory infection in the Eastern Mediterranean Region.
On its first day, the programme included visual presentations on genomic monitoring the spread of SARS epidemic strains in France during 6 waves of the pandemic, assessment of rates of recovery from influenza-related infections using accurate surveillance data and evaluation of the direct medical cost of establishing influenza hospitals in Oman.
The meeting and conference will address several topics, including ways of enhancing preparedness, detection and response to respiratory diseases from one country to a region and to the world (lessons learned from the Corona pandemic) and impacts of the Corona pandemic.
The two events explore means of eliminating the epidemic and preparing for the next pandemic of respiratory infections in the Eastern Mediterranean Region, as well as challenges and opportunities to improve control and prevention.
The conferees also looked into seasonal and pandemic influenza systems and other respiratory viruses that develop into epidemics and pandemics in the Eastern Mediterranean Region, bearing in mind the lessons learned from COVID-19.
The meeting and conference provide an opportunity to share data and study the best practices in the region about using SARI-related surveillance data to assess severity, besides detecting outbreaks during the seasons of normal influenza and other epidemics.
The events seek to document scientific achievements and utilise new operational research results from countries to prevent, detect and respond to seasonal, novel and other emerging respiratory viruses, notably COVID-19.
