On behalf of the Ministry of Public Health, Royal Thai Government, I am pleased to invite you to participate in the Second International Conference on Dengue and Dengue Haemorrhagic Fever, 2008. The Conference will take place at the Hilton Phuket Arcadia Resort & Spa in Phuket Thailand, from 15-17 October 2008. The theme of this conference is “Global Innovation to Fight Dengue”

The Conference will serve as a forum for exchanging comprehensive information, practical experience, new skills and techniques and for conceptualizing and integrating approaches to the prevention and control of the disease.

Priorities for research needed to contain the spread of the virus and its vectors will be defined and agreed upon, all with the aim of reducing morbidity and mortality in endemic countries. Improved surveillance and better estimation of disease burden will be examined, along with methods of improving public commitment to the control and eventual elimination of the disease, a major threat to public health around the world. The Conference will consist of lectures by noted authorities, plenary sessions and symposia including invited speakers, oral and poster presentations and scientific and trade exhibitions. We expect 800 participants from around the globe.

Major topics will include pathophysiology, diagnosis, clinical management, epidemiological surveillance, laboratory aspects, vector biology, ecology and control, advocacy for social and community commitment, viro-molecular considerations, and vaccine development. Participants are encouraged to submit papers focusing on one or more of these topics, or to form a new topic area if there is sufficient interest.

I hope that you will find time to fit this important event into your busy schedules, and that we will meet in sunny Phuket, Thailand.