Date: 23-24 May 2023
Location: Berlin
The Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) and the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, as well as the Académie Nationale des Sciences et Techniques du Sénégal (ANSTS) and the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences (EAS), were co-organisers of the workshop “Infectious Diseases beyond COVID-19” in Berlin from 23-24 May 2023. It was the fourth event of a workshop series on Infectious Diseases for post‐doc researchers from Africa and Europe, which ASSAf and Leopoldina initiated in 2016. The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) as part of the German Alliance for Global Health Research (GLOHRA) supports this workshop.
Even after COVID-19, Infectious Diseases remain a major global challenge. The focus on COVID-19 has reduced control measures for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, leading to a profound increase in cases and deaths. The increase in antimicrobial resistance further worsens the situation, which renders many infections difficult or even impossible to treat. The workshop participants exchanged experiences from the COVID-19 pandemic for future pandemics and re-emerging infectious diseases. The workshop offered a novel focus as it embedded the COVID-19 pandemic in a multidimensional relation to other infectious diseases. Dimensions included the negligence of infants and young children, malaria and tuberculosis during COVID-19, and the development of new technologies (e.g. AI) in detecting the relationship between climate change and the emergence of new infectious diseases or antimicrobial resistance.