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EID Volume 2 * Number 1 January-March 1996
Health officials and disease control experts met November 28-30 in Baltimore, Maryland, for a symposium on the use of satellites to monitor and control insect-transmitted diseases.
Sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Third World Foundation of North America, the symposium was held to inform government officials from various countries of NASA's scientific and technologic capabilities for detecting, monitoring, and improving the control of diseases. Health ministers and medical directors from more than 20 countries, including Bangladesh, Belize, China, Ghana, Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, Nigeria, Peru, and Rwanda, attended.
The symposium featured discussions on the economics of disease surveillance, deforestation, and urbanization. The keynote address, "The resurgence of vector-borne infectious diseases as major public health problems in the 1990s," was given by Duane Gubler, director, Division of Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases, National Center for Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Participants also discussed possible joint activities between NASA and interested countries. Further information can be obtained from NASA's Office of Life and Microgravity Sciences, Washington, D.C., which manages the agency's global monitoring and human health research program in conjunction with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, and CDC.
Michael Braukus
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Washington, D.C., USA
Raj Khanna
Third World Foundation of North America
College Park, Maryland, USA