BY CHANDRASHEKHAR MESHRAM
Neuroinfections form a large group of disorders commonly seen by neurologists as well as other physicians. Old, new, and emerging infections, their patterns of presentations, and imaging features as well as therapies pose challenges in practice. There are not many meetings that address these issues. Therefore, the Tropical and Geographical Neurology Specialty Group of World Federation of Neurology (WFN) in collaboration with the Forum for Indian Neurology Education (FINE) and under the aegis of the World Federation of Neurology has organized a neuroinfection webinar series. This program is dedicated to Prof. Jagjit Singh Chopra.
The webinar-based meeting began on July 18, 2020, and will run every Saturday 7-9 p.m. Indian Standard Time (IST)/1:30-3:30 p.m. Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). There will be a weekly lecture by a renowned neuroinfection expert, covering many aspects followed by presentation and discussion of three cases.
Registration is free, and the link for registration can be found here: http://neurologycourses.com/user/registration.
The program can be accessed at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/801815712 using the password “ilovefine” with no punctuation.
The event was formally inaugurated on July 18 by Prof. Raad Shakir, former president of the WFN and chair of the specialty groups. Prof. Hector Garcia, from Peru, delivered the first talk in the series on neurocysticercosis. Participants had the opportunity to interact with the speaker through a question and answer session after the talk. This was followed by presentation and discussion on three interesting and challenging cases.
Subsequent talks will be on Saturday, July 25, by Prof. Erich Schmutzhard (Austria) on cerebral malaria, on Aug. 1 by Prof. Marco Tulio Medina (Honduras) on Zika and other arbovirus infections, on Aug. 8 by Prof. Riadh Gouider (Tunisia) on neurobrucelloisis, on Aug. 15 by Prof. Serefnur Ozturk (Turkey) on encephalitis, on Aug. 22 by Prof. Jeremy Day (Vietnam) on cryptococcosis, on Aug. 29 by Prof. Avindra Nath (USA) on the approach to neuroinfections, and on Sept. 4 by Prof. Joseph Berger (USA) on fungal infections of the CNS.
Interesting and challenging cases of dengue, chikungunya, rabies, ebola virus, nipah encephalitis, neuroschistosomiasis, neurognathostomiasis, trypanosomiasis, onchocerciasis, neuroangiostrongylosis, amoebic encephalitis, sarcocystosis, CNS TB, HIV, and other diseases will be presented and discussed during the series.
We welcome delegates from different countries to participate and present the cases. Those interested in presenting cases should write to the moderators of the program. Chandrashekhar Meshram, president of the Tropical and Geographical Neurology Specialty Group, is the program director. Gagandeep Singh and Rahul Kulkarni are moderators, while Sudhir Kothari and Roop Gursahani are advisors.
