IEA Council Election Results, 2021-24

Of 1592 eligible IEA members, about half (764) voted during December 15-30, 2020. Every election was independently certified as having no evidence of fraud. Regional councilors were elected by IEA members in good standing who reside in the specific region. The new Executive and Council members will assume their offices at the World Congress of Epidemiology, currently scheduled to take place 3-6 September 2021. Their terms will last until the next World Congress of Epidemiology, currently scheduled for September 2024.

Newly Elected IEA Council Members for the next IEA period of office are:

Officers of the Executive Committee

President: Chandra Mani Pandey

President-Elect: Akindele Adebiyi

Past President: Henrique Barros

Secretary: Karina Braga Ribeiro

Treasurer: Yosikazu Nakamura

 
Regional representatives

Africa Region: Armanda Nkwescheu
European Region: Linda O’Keeffe
Latin America & Caribbean Region: Pedro Hallal
Middle East/North Africa Region: Mary Deeb
North America Region: Jennifer Salerno
Southeast Asia Region: Umesh Kapil
Western Pacific Region: Chihaya Koriyama
Early Career Epidemiologist: Ritu Pradhan Sharma (Southeast Asia Region)

IJE Seeking Editorial Assistance

The International Journal of Epidemiology, led by Editor-in-Chief Stephen Leeder, is looking for help. Editorial assistance is needed from those with expertise in the fields of:

• Alcohol
• Cancer
• Environmental
• Statistics
• Maternal and Child Health
• Infectious Diseases
• Big Data/Machine Learning
• Mental Health
• Nutrition/Diet
• Metabolomics
• Epidemiology Methods/Modeling
• Respiratory
• Occupational Epidemiology

Volunteers from lower-middle income countries are especially welcome. Please email a letter of interest and any editorial credentials to Stephen.leeder@sydney.edu.au

Cesar Victora named winner of 2021 Richard Doll Prize in Epidemiology

Cesar Victora, Emeritus Professor of Universidade Federal de Pelotas, Brazil, and Director, International Center for Equity in Health, has been named the winner of the 2021 Richard Doll Prize in Epidemiology.

The Richard Doll Prize is awarded by IEA in commemoration of Richard Doll’s legacy and his achievements in epidemiology. The prize is for a body of scientific research in epidemiology that has advanced understanding of conditions that are important for population health.

Victora's research has driven global policies on breastfeeding, child nutrition and inequalities in health. He has applied and advanced epidemiological methods to maternal and child health, initially in his home country and later in dozens of low and middle-income countries. His studies in the 1980s led to the discovery of the importance of exclusive breastfeeding for infant survival, which shaped World Health Organization policies in 1991. His leading role in the creation of the WHO Child Growth Standards led to growth curves that are now used in over 140 countries. He leads the Pelotas Birth Cohort Studies (1982, 1993, 2004 and 2015) which have made major contributions to recognition of the importance of early nutrition for adult health and human capital. More recently, he became a global leader in the study of inequalities in maternal and child health, and his team provides global analyses that are widely used by international organizations.

Having opted to remain in Brazil throughout his career, he has honorary appointments at Oxford University, Harvard University and Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. He is a member of the editorial board of many journals, including The Lancet. In Brazil, he founded the Post-Graduate Program in Epidemiology at the Federal University of Pelotas, a remote location without any research activity until the 1980s and led this program to become the top-ranked program in the Ministry of Education’s scoring system for over 80 Public Health programs in the country.

Early Career Epidemiologist Elections Conclude

The election of regional Early Career Epidemiologist representatives has concluded. Winning candidates for each region are:

• Dr. Moleen Dzikiti, Africa Region
• Rajini Nagrani, Europe Region
• Ghinwa El Hayek, MPH, Middle East North Africa Region
• Astou Thiam, North America Region
• Dr. Ritu Pradhan Sharma, South East Asia Region, and member of IEA Council
• Dr. Gazaleh Dashti, Western Pacific Region

A candidate was not elected in the Latin American & Caribbean Region.

IEA defines Early Career Epidemiologists as those currently enrolled in a graduate or postgraduate course of study in a subject relevant to epidemiology, or who have worked in the field of epidemiology for not more than ten years.

Elected representatives will serve for the next three years starting at the conclusion of the 2021 IEA World Congress of Epidemiology in Melbourne, Australia (http://ieaweb.org). Terms will end at the conclusion of the 2024 World Congress of Epidemiology.

Per IEA’s Constitution and Bylaws, the representative elected from the region that will be hosting the next World Congress of Epidemiology will become the ECE Council Member. This person will liaise with the ECE representatives in all regions, formulate proposals for ECE activities, and represent the interests of ECE members to Council. The 2024 WCE will be held in Goa, India.

In Memoriam

Vinod Srivastava, MD, DPH, M Sc, FIPHA, FIAPSM, FAMS, FSMS

It is with immense grief that we inform members of the IEA and public health community about the passing of Professor Vinod Srivastava – an internationally acclaimed epidemiologist and senior faculty in community medicine

Professor Vinod had a long association with IEA. He joined IEA in the early 1980s, and served as its Regional Councilor for South East Asia Region during 2008-14 and Secretary - IEA during 2014-17. He was a very active member and contributed to IEA in several ways. He played an active role in extending the idea of joint membership scheme, which was initially for developing countries, to all IEA regions; this resulted in substantial increase in IEA membership. He also facilitated the Early Career Epidemiologist scheme and its mentorship program to attract young researchers in epidemiology. He promoted epidemiological activities in regions through national associations and encouraged the organization of Regional Conferences in Sri Lanka, Nepal, Thailand and Indonesia. As Regional Councilor, he established IEA-SEA regional website to strengthen communication among members in the region. Regional Symposia organized during World Congresses held at Porto (Brazil), Edinburgh (UK), Alaska (USA) and Saitama (Japan) was due to his active initiative.

The International Epidemiological Association will always remember Professor Vinod Srivastava for his significant contributions towards its mission and objectives and also for his love and devotion to public health and Epidemiology. His unexpected departure has caused a vacuum in the IEA family leaving behind several unfinished tasks. We pay our sincere tributes to him. He will ever remain in our hearts.

Latin America & North America Regional Conference

April 19 -30, 2021

This series of webinars is jointly organized by the Latin America and North America Regions of the International Epidemiology Association. More than 24 instructors will focus on three different modules: Cancer Epidemiology Symposium (19-22 April); The Epidemiology of Vaccine Hesitancy (23 April and 26 April); and Scholarly Publishing in Epidemiology and Public Health (April 27-30). All courses take place between 12:00 - 13:30 BRT .

All courses will be taught in Portuguese with the exception of Day 2 of the Vaccine Hesitancy module which will be taught in English. Questions to speakers can be submitted in English, Spanish, Portuguese and French.

For the complete schedule and a list of speakers please click here .




 

Conferência Regional da América Latina e América do Norte

19 de abril - 30 de abril de 2021

In Memoriam - Adetokunbo Oluwole Lucas

(Fall 2020) We were going to hold the IEA-WP regional joint symposium in collaboration with JEA (Japan Epidemiological Association) in February 2020, at the time of the 30th annual JEA Scientific Meeting in Kyoto, entitled “What is expected as the regional collaborative activities of IEA-WP region”. We have postponed the symposium because of the COVID-19 epidemic in this region. Fortunately, the next JEA scientific meeting in 2021 (JEA 2021) will be held on Jan 27th to 29th, 2021 as a web-based online meeting. Therefore, we have decided to hold the postponed IEA- WP Regional Group Joint Symposium on JEA 2021. The symposium invited speakers from 5 regional epidemiological associations, Australasian Epidemiological Association, Chinese Epidemiological Association, Japan Epidemiological Association, Korean Society of Epidemiology and Taiwan Epidemiology Association, as well as Young/Early-Career Epidemiologist Network, and received kind acceptance letter from all speakers.  

JEA-IEAWP Travel Award for WCE2021

International Epidemiological Association (IEA) Western Pacific (WP) region invited applications for the JEA-IEAWP Travel Award in collaboration with JEA. An award of 1,600 USD, plus a registration fee waiver, will be made to up to 5 participants which is intended to offset expenses related to World Congress of Epidemiology 2020 (now WCE2021) attendance and travel. Due to the COVID-19 crisis affecting populations worldwide, WCE2020 has been postponed to 2021. Accordingly, we postponed the selection of awardee in accordance with the updated timeline.

(Fall 2020)  The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted economic, health and living conditions on the African continent. Since the 3^rd of March 2020 when three African countries first reported confirmed cases, up to 47 Africa countries have now reported a cumulative 891, 942 confirmed cases. The impact on individuals, families and communities across Africa has been unprecedented. The occurrence of this pandemic within the timeframe of an unfinished African agenda on control of communicable diseases and an increasing prevalence of non-communicable diseases portends great danger for weak African Health Systems. The economic loss while still unfolding is projected to be quite huge. Happily, even though previous predictions from outside Africa had projected an exponential increase and profound mortality, current data suggest the virus is spreading more slowly in Africa than was initially anticipated. Mortality has also been low with a total number of deaths put at 16,941 (case fatality ratio of ~ 1.9%).

Population testing still remains low, with many countries still unable to test beyond the big cities, which makes it difficult to correctly assess the true situation and predict the trend in African countries. However, it is pleasing that despite health system challenges and resource limitations, African countries have done relatively well in managing this pandemic. The tremendous efforts put into contact listing, contact tracing, active surveillance and ramping up basic public health measures like handwashing and social distancing has been unprecedented. The adaptation of risk communication strategies to fit contextual backgrounds has been remarkable. At the centre of all these efforts are the African epidemiologists who continue to toil night and day to find some meaning out of the crisis and are at the forefront of advancing strategies based on science, data and logic. These contributions would not be forgotten in a hurry! Now more than ever is the work of the epidemiologist appreciated. Whether in large urban hospital settings, or in the far-flung communities that are hard to reach or in conflict zones amid grave threats to life and personal security, our colleagues across Africa have demonstrated the importance of epidemiology in understanding a virus that most times is hidden in our very midst. We must continue to encourage them, support them and collaborate in sharing unique experiences that would engender co-learning. This pandemic will redefine epidemiology and the skill sets and competencies needed to practice as an epidemiologist globally and particularly in resource poor settings like Africa. This reinforces our stance as the International Epidemiological Association- African Region on the need to rethink, reposition and rebrand epidemiology for greater impact and it further sets us on the path to achieving the “Maputo Declaration” set by the African arm of the association on 17^th of April, 2019. The IEA-Africa region salutes the resilience and dedication of our colleagues across the African Continent and globally.