Dear all,
April was an incredibly busy month for conference attendance.
ECCMID
I was honoured to give the opening plenary lecture (entitled Frontiers in the diagnosis and management of infections in the immunocompromised host) at the European Conference on Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID); the largest international Infectious Diseases meeting attended by 15,000 delegates, May 2023, Coppenhagen.
Also present to represent Peter Mac and the Infectious diseases research being conducted by the National Centre for Infections in Cancer and Transplantation (NCICT) were Prof Karin Thursky, A/Prof Gabrielle Haeusler, Drs Michelle Yong, Victoria Hall, Daniel Yeoh, Gemma Reynolds and Ms Kar Yee Yong. All listed presented research and Dr Ben Teh also attended to support presentations by PhD students.
ASID
We had 3 PhD candidates presenting as well as one masters of public health student represent at ASID. Highlights include being awarded a lifetime member and having my name on the Adelaide oval scoreboard
Otherhighlights were Dr Shio Yen Tio winning the 2023 ANZMIG Mycology SIG award and meeting Professor Glaukenflucken.
@NCICancer twitter has now reached influencer status with over 1000 followers
May also saw NCICT Drs, Michelle Yong, Liv Smibert, Beatrice Sim, Megan Crane and Shio Yen Tio attend the Fred Hutch Symposium on Infections in the immunocompromised Host in Seattle and Rachel Woolstencroft, Drs Ben Teh, Zoe Neoh and Karin Thursky present at the Peter Mac Research Symposium. Jason Trubiano held a highly successful drug allergy symposium at the Doherty shortly after his appointment to full Professor. Congratulations Prof Trubiano!
Seminars and Journal Club
NCICT Journal Club
Monthly, Fridays 12 pm
The third of the 2023 monthly NCICT Journal Club series is this Friday June 2nd 12-1 pm with Dr. Morgan Rose presenting. Sign up for a live link to the NCIC Journal Club series HERE.
NCICT Seminar series
Thursday June 8th, 12.30-1.30
Dr Michelle Yong: New developments in managing CMV in transplant recipients
Feature Paper
Current epidemiology and clinical features of Cryptococcus infection in patients without HIV infection: a multicentre study in 46 hospitals from Australia and New Zealand.
Clin Infect Dis. 2023 May 26:ciad321. doi: 10.1093/cid/ciad321. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 37235212.
Coussement J, Heath CH, Roberts MB, Lane RJ, Spelman T, Smibert OC, Longhitano A, Morrissey O, Nield B, Tripathy M, Davis JS, Kennedy KJ, Lynar SA, Crawford LC, Crawford SJ, Smith BJ, Gador-Whyte AP, Haywood R, Mahony AA, Howard JC, Walls GB, O'Kane GM, Broom MT, Keighley CL, Bupha-Intr O, Cooley L, O'Hern JA, Jackson JD, Morris AJ, Bartolo C, Tramontana AR, Grimwade KC, Au Yeung V, Chean R, Woolnough E, Teh BW, Chen SC, Slavin MA; Australian and New Zealand study group for cryptococcosis in patients without HIV infection.
During his 2 years at NCIC in Melbourne, visiting ID physician Dr Julien Coussement completed this study of cryptococcosis in patients without HIV infection showing that in Australia and New Zealand this is by far the most common population in which cryptococcosis is seen. Whilst around 60% of this population have a recognised form of immunocompromise, the rest do not. Signs and symptoms may be subtle, or not present at all, as evidenced by the 16% of cases where cryptococcosis was an incidental finding on imaging performed for another reason. Interestingly, in this population CNS involvement was often predicted by a high serum cryptococcal antigen or fungemia. This work helps our understanding of the infection outside of the population of people living with HIV. Congratulations Julian for co-ordinating the 46 sites in Australia and New Zealand-no mean feat! Many thanks to all our collaborators who are acknowledged as authors or as members of the Australian and New Zealand study group for cryptococcosis in patients without HIV infection in the journal and on-line.
Kind regards
Prof Monica Slavin, MBBS, MD, FRACP, FAAHMS
Head, Department Infectious Disease, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre
Professor of Infection in Cancer and Transplantation, University of Melbourne Department of Infectious Diseases and the Sir Peter MacCallum Department of Oncology
Director, National Centre for Infections in Cancer and Transplantation