The World Federation of Paediatric Intensive and Critical Care Society is introducing its Awareness Week, a global initiative where colleagues caring for critically ill children share their experiences and innovations in a modest and collaborative spirit. This event highlights the impact of climate change, epidemics, and socio-economic challenges on child health and clinical care. Through a series of podcasts and webinars, clinical teams and health workers from various regions will discuss their working environments and problem-solving strategies while outlining their expectations from global partnerships. For example, teams from Sub-Saharan Africa will explore how Madagascar’s increasing tropical storms disrupt healthcare infrastructure, agriculture, and even alter the epidemiology of infectious diseases such as malaria and dengue, further exacerbating food insecurity and malnutrition risks. In eastern DRC’s South Kivu, health workers will focus on the compounded challenges posed by a fragile health system, MPOX epidemics, conflict, and the needs of displaced populations. Moreover, all teams will describe how climate change adaptation measures—such as energy-efficient facility designs and the use of renewable energy (e.g., solar energy) to ensure decentralized oxygen provision, power essential biomedical equipment, and maintain cold chains for vaccinations—can not only reduce carbon emissions and other environmental impacts of health systems but also substantially improve access to essential health care services for vulnerable populations. Our colleagues will also emphasize the responsibility of industrialized countries to support climate change adaptation measures in regions that have historically contributed minimally to global CO₂ emissions.

Dear colleagues and interested parties!

We cordially invite you to the Tropical Medicine Symposium at the Charité.

Modern tropical medicine not only addresses the classic infectious diseases of warm regions, but also the social determinants of health and the economic aspects of healthcare in middle- and low-income countries. The boundaries between curative and population-based preventive medicine are often fluid. The same applies to the closely related fields of international and global health and migration medicine. The Institute of International Health is located at the intersection of these topics. Here, patient care (returning travelers, migrants), specialized diagnostics, the prevention of vaccine-preventable diseases, and research activities in Berlin and abroad converge. Constantly changing infection patterns and new diagnostic, therapeutic, and preventive options shape our daily lives.

We hope this event will provide you with insight into the changing, exciting, and broad field of modern tropical medicine. The speakers will be available for discussion afterward. Continuing education credits have been applied for with the Berlin Medical Association. We look forward to welcoming you to this symposium on May 7, 2025, and look forward to a lively exchange.

Prof. Dr. Beate Kampmann

Prof. Dr. Frank Mockenhaupt

The Berlin Epidemiological Methods Colloquium (BEMC) invites all interested participants to its next session on Wednesday, May 7, 2025 at 4:00 PM CEST.

📣 Guest Speaker:
Martin Lajous (National Institute of Public Health, Mexico & Maria Sklodowska-Curie National Research Institute of Oncology, Poland)
🗣️ Talk Title: "Estimating effects on all-cause mortality in the presence of COVID-19 deaths"

In this presentation, Lajous will explore how the COVID-19 pandemic has introduced new challenges for epidemiologic cohorts evaluating the impact of risk factors on non-communicable disease mortality. Using data from the Mexican Teachers’ Cohort and the Polish-Norwegian Study, he will discuss patterns of mortality during and after the pandemic, and outline various causal inference methods for dealing with competing risks like COVID-19 deaths. The talk will also delve into advanced analytic strategies such as g-formula, IPTW, and separable treatment effects, including their application in real-world studies on colon and prostate cancer.

📍 Location (in-person): Lecture Hall 21 (former Paul-Ehrlich-Hörsaal), Virchowweg 4, CCM
📝 Register for in-person attendance
💻 Register for remote attendance via Zoom
📺 Not in Berlin? Join via livestream!

This is a great opportunity to engage with advanced epidemiological methods and gain insights into current debates in population health research.