Date: Friday 16 November 2018
Time: 12.45pm (for 1.00pm) to 2.45pm
Location: Boston Marriott Copley Place, Clarendon Room

Contact events@ilcuk.org.uk for room information.

ILC-UK will be holding a policy round table over lunch at the Gerontological Society of America Conference in Boston in November.

We want your input into what you think policymakers should be doing to reduce the future risk of infectious diseases among older adults.

2018 marks the 100th Anniversary of Spanish Flu. The deadly influenza pandemic infected some 500 million people and resulted in deaths of between 50 and 100 million people.

Since then, we have seen significant investments in public health, clean water and vaccination.

We are however, witnessing warnings that we are becoming complacent about the impact of the flu and other infectious diseases and there are fears that the world may be on the brink of another infectious disease pandemic.

During the policy round table, ILC-UK will facilitate a discussion about what lessons can be learnt from successes in public health over the past 100 years. We will focus a debate on what should be done by policymakers across the world to ensure that we mitigate the risk of future pandemics.

During the discussion, we want your input into

• Is there a growing risk of infectious disease pandemics? Why?
• What are the specific risks faced by older people or as a result of demographic change?
• What needs to be done (by industry, policymakers and others) to reduce the risk of future pandemics?
• What is our individual responsibility? (vaccination; handwashing etc)
• How can we keep infectious diseases at bay across the world?
• How can we work together internationally on this issue?

ILC-UK will hold similar events in London and Brussels before producing a consensus statement and short report aimed at global policymakers in the winter.

ILC-UK’s work on Spanish Flu has been supported by Pfizer.

If you are interested in attending this event, please email DavidSinclair@ilcuk.org.uk