Letter from the President—August 2019 Greetings ASTDA Members! It has been a year since I took office as President and there are many important things going on with ASTDA that I want to share with you. As you are no doubt aware, there have been many changes in our working environment over the past year some of which are positive (e.g. additional funding support as a result of the End HIV Initiative) and some of
ASTDA/IUSTI-North America submitted a successful bid to host the 2023 combined ISSTDR/IUSTI World Congress. The Congress will be held in Chicago, July 22-26, 2023 in conjunction with the National Sexual Health Conference. More information on the bid can be found here. Mark your calendar!
The new American administration led by Donald Trump and Michael Pence promises changes likely detrimental to the public health infrastructure addressing sexually transmitted diseases, and to the funding streams that support research on prevention, treatment, and education. Rollback of expanded health access, insecurity among immigrant populations, loss of legal protections for sexual and gender minorities, and aggressive restrictions on sexual/reproductive health services are just the most general areas that affect STD at the intersections of
The 2017 STI & HIV World Congress to be held July 9 -12, at the Windsor Convention & Expo Center in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Access the official site through this LINK.
May 9, 2016 Dear Colleagues, With spring slowly changing to summer, I wanted to give you an update on what’s happening in the Association. First, it gives me great pleasure to announce and congratulate the richly deserving recipients of the 2016 ASTDA Recognition Awards: Dr. Anne Rompalo (Distinguished Career Award), Dr. Joan Chow (Achievement Award), and Dr. Lindley Barbee (Young Investigator Award). Thanks very much to the members of this year’s awards committee that yielded
The American Sexually Transmitted Diseases Association (ASTDA) represents a very diverse membership, including basic scientists, researchers, clinicians, epidemiologists, public health officials, and disease intervention specialists. ASTDA lacks the staff and resources to serve the specific needs of its individual constituents, however, it should be well poised to identify and serve common goals. In the following, I’d like to discuss our progress and plans in 5 strategic areas: collaboration, communication and translation, rejuvenation, and member engagement.
Dear Colleagues, Last week, the National Network of STD Prevention Training Centers (NNPTC) and the National Coalition of STD Directors held their annual meetings back-to-back in Savannah, GA. Obviously, this was no coincidence. Since the NNPTC started their new funding cycle last fall, there has been a clear expectation from CDC that the prevention training centers work closely together with the state and local STD AAPPS (Assessment, Assurance, Policy Development and Prevention Strategies) grantees and
Two weeks ago, the CDC released the long awaited 2015 edition of the Sexually Transmitted Diseases Treatment Guidelines. Rigorous review of relevant national and international STD research over the past decade and a consensus meeting of more than 100 STD experts in Atlanta 2 years ago have culminated in a 200 page document, not counting 60 pages of references. Many of our colleagues have spent an incredible amount of time in the review process, most
Hyatt Regency Atlanta hotel in Atlanta, Georgia on March 21-24, 2016. http://hivtestingconference.org/
A belated happy new year to all! Despite the holidays, these have been busy times for ASTDA. In early December 2014, the Executive Committee (EC) had its annual in-person meeting. It was a very productive meeting, effectively mapping the future directions of the association. There was consensus that for ASTDA to be a more visible and effective organization, it needs to accomplish the following: better communication with its members and partners, enhancing support for the
