On behalf of the Australian Society for Antimicrobials I would like to invite you to the Society's 11th Annual Scientific Meeting "Antimicrobials 2010" to be held at the Sofitel Sydney Wentworth Hotel, Sydney on Thursday 25th - Saturday 27th February 2010.
I am pleased to announce Hajo Grundmann from the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment in the Netherlands and Michael Yeaman from the Harbor UCLA-Medical Center in the USA will be participating at the meeting. Hajo will be presenting the plenary "What Resistance Surveillance Tells Us" while Michael will be presenting the plenary "Antimicrobial Peptides". Both speakers will also be participating in the symposium sessions.
The Australian plenary speaker for "Antimicrobials 2010" is Pat Charles from the Austin Hospital. Pat will be presenting the plenary "Community Acquired Pneumonia (CAP) in Hand".
The programme's symposia cover many different aspects on antimicrobials and sessions include "VRE", "New Understandings of Antimicrobial Resistance Mechanisms", "Mycobacterium tuberculosis", "Invasive Fungal Infections", and "Antimicrobial Resistance as a Public Health Issue". In addition we have two workshops on Saturday afternoon titled "VRE Screening: Practical and Bench Top Tips" and the "Antimicrobial Stewardship - Where are we and Lessons Learnt?" and "The Drugs" Pharmacy Workshops.
Three proffered papers and two poster sessions are also planned for the meeting. Once again ASA is offering travel awards to financial members of the Society who are submitting abstracts for the meeting. These awards include return economy airfare, registration and accommodation. In addition the ASA/bioMérieux travel award will be awarded during the meeting to an abstract dealing with the identification of bacterial resistance to antimicrobials in a routine clinical setting.
To promote discussion and interaction between delegates and the invited speakers the meeting's registration includes lunches, morning and afternoon teas and admission to the Welcome and Industry Receptions.
I am confident that you will find the meeting's programme both scientifically stimulating and informative and we look forward to meeting you in Sydney.
Graeme Nimmo
President ASA