These issues will be explored in depth at a symposium sponsored by the American Academy of Microbiology, "From Outside to Inside: Environmental Microorganisms as Human Pathogens," to be held at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) on Saturday, February 14, 2004, 2:305:30 p.m., in Seattle, WA.
The symposium will examine several issues that are vital to current research on environmental pathogens. For example, although they are not professional human pathogens, many of these organisms cause devastating diseases, such as cholera or Legionnaire's disease, which can affect large populations or groups of susceptible individuals. Some cause illnesses with serious economic impact (e.g., listeriosis), can be used as deadly biowarfare agents (e.g., anthrax), or can cause persistent infections that are extremely difficult to treat (e.g., Mycobacterium avium complex, or MAC). This raises intriguing questions about how these microorganisms evolved the ability to cause disease and resist antibiotic treatment. Global climate change and the threat of biowarfare could radically alter the nature of human interactions with environmental pathogens, affecting disease prevalence. Disease prevention is also a significant question.
Speakers at the session include organizer Gerard A. Cangelosi, Ph.D., Seattle Biomedical Research Institute, who will provide an overview of the issues involved in studying environmental pathogens and discuss "
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Contact: Mimi Godfrey
mgodfrey@asmusa.org
202-942-9292
American Society for Microbiology
9-Feb-2004